In the Dark
by SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd
Summary: When the legendary Blue Blur embarks on a rescue mission to save his best friends, he finds himself caught in a tragedy that changes him But has Eggman thought of a way to use his enemy's dark side as his greatest weakness? Sonic must learn to control his fiery temper for the sake of the future and for his Rated T for violence and STH-Nerd
1. Chapter 1 - Tragedy Strikes

**(Hey guys! I'm back with story 2! I suppose this could be a few months after my previous story with how it takes place. I'll try and post a chapter close to every day. :) **

**Warning: Extreme emotion or crying may occur at the end of this chapter.**

**I almost made myself cry proof-reading this. **

**Enjoy!)**

"Alert, Eggman activity, South Robotropolis. Alert, Eggman activity, South Robotropolis."

Nicole's voice reverberated throughout Freedom Fighter Headquarters. I was sitting at a table in the middle of a meeting with the other leading Freedom Fighters, but I wasn't really there – my mind was wandering. Upon hearing the alarms, I banged my head against the table in frustration, choosing to be stubborn.

"Not…again…I…don't…want…to…go!" I grumbled with each head-bang.

"Sonic, get moving! You're leading the attack!"

"Why me?" I asked, propping my head up with my hand. "Why can't someone else do it for once?"

Sally just glared at me and put her hands on her hips. She could get me to do anything with that look.

"Ugh, fine," I groaned, standing up and making my stubbornness clear as I stomped past her. I joined several other Freedom Fighters outside of the headquarters and casually pushed my azure quills back and looked at the group I was to lead.

"So…" I began, leaning against the building. "Let's head out."

"Hold it," one of the younger Freedom Fighters said. "Don't you have a plan?"

"Uh, not really. But I've gone through multiple successful missions without a plan. Plus, that's kind of Sal's bit, not mine."

The Freedom Fighter just shrugged his shoulders. I turned to Sally, who was looking at me disapprovingly.

"So where are we stationed?" I asked, ignoring her look.

She shook her head at my behavior. I smirked a little. "Your team is stationed at South Robotropolis to search for Amy and Tails, who we haven't heard word from in days." Sally replied, looking at a holographic map on her comlink, which was strapped around her wrist. "If we find a lead—"

"Wait, Tails and Amy?" I stopped her. "What are they doing there?"

Sally sighed in exasperation. "They were on a spy mission. You really need to pay attention during the meetings. We're meeting by the old spy shack outside of South Factory 557."

I just shook my head. "Fine, let's move." Without hesitating another minute, I raced off.

"Wait, that's not the entire plan!" Sally cried. But she was too late; I was gone, my super-sonic speed leaving the rest of them coughing up the dust I left behind.

I raced in and out of town in a flash, not waiting for the others. If my friends were involved, I was all business. I knew something had happened to Amy and Tails. It was instinct. This kind of thing was common with me, although it wasn't always with two of my best friends. I wasted no time reaching our meeting place. I was tapping my foot rapidly and impatiently by the time the others showed up.

"You could've waited," Sally said, stopping her hover scooter nearby.

I shrugged. "You're too slow," I sang half-heartedly. I was bored. I needed action. "So what's the plan?"

"If you'd listened to me earlier," Sally gave me a look. "Your team will be creating a diversion out front while my team battles the robots further out. If and when we find a trail, you and I will head inside. I'll shut down the defenses while you find Tails and Amy."

I nodded, trying to get my heart into the battle. "Sounds good. Let's do it to it!" I shook the bad feeling about my friends long enough to give a cocky smile.

"Hands in," Sally said. The two teams put their hands in the middle of the group; Sally's and mine on the top. "Freedom Fighters on 3. 1…2…"

The whole team lifted their hands from the pile in unison and chorused, "Freedom Fighters!" We wished each other good luck and the teams rode off to their destinations on their hover scooters. I stood alone with Sally by the spy shack.

"You ready?" I asked, looking at her.

"Definitely," she smiled.

This has been something we've been doing together for a long time. We were used to danger; it was second nature for us. No matter what Eggman throws at us, we'll fight it, despite the odds. There was no doubt in my mind that we'd succeed again.

I returned her smile. We did our secret handshake and raced off, me leading. It didn't take long to reach the spot where Amy and Tails had been stationed. There were definite signs of struggle – broken robots and robot parts lay everywhere, charred marks on the ground where lasers hit and where robots exploded…and a broken – and very familiar –red and yellow hammer laying in the middle of it all. I confirmed some of my worst fears and took off after a dark line of smoke in the sky from one of Eggman's polluting air ships, Sally a couple yards behind. It led us to one of Eggman's main bases. We searched the building until we found a large enough air vent for us to crawl through. I pulled off the cover and gestured inside.

"After you," I said.

"You're such a gentleman," Sally replied, rolling her eyes but going inside. I smirked to myself and followed, replacing the vent cover and crawling after her. We moved painfully slow; she paused to look in every room we went over. We did our best to keep quiet – low, short breaths and gentle, careful movements. After a few minutes, I grabbed Sally's arm, stopping her. She looked at me curiously, and I pointed ahead.

"Listen," I mouthed. We both fell absolutely silent and listened intently. After a second, we both made out a faint whirring of a robot passing. She and I pressed into an air shaft that broke off from the vent, holding our breaths. A minute later, the whirring got louder and one of Eggman's miniature hover spy-bots flew down the vent. It paused in front of our air shaft, looking around. I prayed the shadows hid us well enough.

Sure enough, a red light beeped twice on the robot, indicating no luck in finding anything, and it moved on. We waited until we couldn't hear its whirring before letting out our breaths and continuing on.

"That was close," I whispered.

"Shh," Sally hushed. I nodded and followed her down the vent again.

After several minutes of crawling, Sally stopped and pointed out of another air shaft we were near. Outside of it, I could see a room filled with computers, screens, and blinking lights.

"We found the computer room," I said under my breath, smirking to myself. Sally just rolled her eyes. She crawled into the air shaft and took a small tube out of her vest pocket. One end was thin, like a whistle, and the other end was shaped like the barrel of a gun. She stuck it between the bars of the shaft and blew into it. A dart shot out of the end and hit the neck of one of the three guards at the computers. She did the same to the other two. All three slumped over, unconscious. I couldn't help but grin to myself.

"You continue on to find Tails and Amy," she whispered. "I'll call you in about 15 minutes."

I gave her a thumbs up and waited for her to open the shaft and drop down into the control room. When she replaced the shaft cover, I continued on down the vent.

I didn't want my part of the mission to be too easy. So as soon as I was far enough away from the control room to eliminate any suspicion of Sally being there, I dropped down into a hallway through another air shaft. An infrared laser security system lay ahead, and for fun, I tripped the system with the toe of my sneaker. I smirked as the alarms started, and in my head, I could almost hear Sally groaning. Some automatically activated robots came out of panels in the wall and started firing lasers at me. I leaped over the laser blasts and they hit the ground, leaving charred marks where they hit. I laughed and spin-dashed into one of the robots, jumped behind another and let a third blow up the one I hid behind. I then jumped on the third robot's shoulders and jumped off as it shot its own head and fell over in a sparking mess. I homing attacked the rest and raced down the hall, sticking my tongue out at a nearby camera.

As I continued down the hall, miniature laser cannons came out of the walls and fired at me, but their aim was _so_ off that I knew that Sally was controlling them to keep her cover hidden. The doors ahead started to slide shut, but I zipped underneath them just before they closed.

I reached an intersection. The hallway that crossed the one I was in was darker, lit by dim lights along the wall and a number of security features happened to be absent. I figured that _that_ was the hallway Eggman used to get to the different rooms in his base. The hallway I was in was lit and littered with security measures. I shrugged and raced down the darker hallway, doors slamming down behind me as I raced by, missing me by inches. Speed detectors. Naturally.

I raced passed a suspiciously dark room. I pulled a Michael Jackson and moonwalked backwards to check it out and peered into the blackness – the only light was thin streams of moonlight through high, small, rectangular windows.

"Hel-looo?" I called inside. My voice echoed.

"_SONIC!_"

The scream made my blood run cold. The two voices were like something you'd hear in a horror film; terrified and blood-curdling. It was immediately followed by dark, maniacal laughter. I recognized the voices. Tails and Amy…and the laughter belonged to Eggman's.

I stood stunned in the doorway. The lights turned on, and I saw them tied up in the middle of a large, relatively empty room, surrounded by a semi-circle of robots standing several feet back, pointing their guns at my friends, awaiting commands. One wall of the room was almost entirely glass, and I could see into the next room. Eggman stood amongst various machines, looking sickeningly proud of himself. I took a large step into the room my friends were in, heard a _bang_ and almost ran into a thick glass wall. I was trapped in a half-cylinder made of glass, the top, back wall, and bottom made of steal. I frowned, completely trapped.

"Let them go, Eggman," I said tersely, fists clenched at my sides. The intense look of fear on Tails's and Amy's faces was enough to give me nightmares.

"Not just yet," Eggman said, his voice echoing on hidden speakers. "I'm conducting a little experiment." He started to walk towards one of the computers. I suspected what he was going to do, and a look of horror crossed my face. I backed up as far back as I could before the steal wall stopped me, preparing to spin-dash at the glass, when metal bands slid around my hands and feet, binding me to the wall.

"NO!" I shouted, thrashing harshly against the restraints, the metal rubbing painfully into my wrists and ankles. "_Don't you dare!_"

Eggman just smirked and pressed a button on the keypad.

It was all I could do not to scream. The robots opened fire on my friends. They screamed and ducked their heads, as if that'd protect them against the blasts. I struggled, using all my strength against the metal, my back arching at the strain.

"_No!_" I shouted, and with the uncanny amount of strength the fear and adrenaline gave me, I snapped the metal bands and fell forward, immediately spin-dashing the glass before hitting the floor, which shattered. But it was all in vain. Time seemed to move in slow motion. I watched one laser hit Tails in the chest. I watched the sickening bloom of crimson red blood on his white chest fur. He slumped forward, and I screamed his name. Tears streaked down Amy's face as she realized what happened. In a whirlwind, I smashed through all of the robots in a second, and they all sparked as soon as I left them and exploded one by one. I raced over to Tails and Amy and untied the ropes holding them with shaking hands, the only noise a ringing in my ears.

Tails fell into my lap. I rolled him over and fear, sadness, and rage filled me when I saw his face, my fingers trailing along his cold cheek. He had been terrified. His eyes were unseeing, emotionless. Dead eyes. I was too late. My best friend was gone.

**(Whoooo….OK, don't cry. I will not cry. I am not Elise. Or Amy. Or whatever. I'm gonna work on Chapter 2. I kinda wanna cry. :3 What did you think? Intense? Should Tails die? Or somehow come back? I apologize if I just killed your favorite character.**

**Stay tuned for more coming soon!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	2. Chapter 2 - Dark Consequences

**(Last time on _In the Dark__..._**

**Sonic, Sally, and a select few of Freedom Fighters set out on a rescue mission to save Tails and Amy, who had been captured on a spy mission. Sally and Sonic infiltrated Dr. Eggman's main base and broke into the control room. Sally controlled the base while Sonic went after his friends. Unfortunately, upon finding them, Sonic was captured and forced to watch as Eggman set his robots on his friends, commanding them to open fire. Sonic broke free, but was too late. Tails was shot and collapsed, cold and dead.**

**How will the grief and anger-stricken Sonic react? Will he and Amy succumb to the same fate as their beloved comrade? Keep reading to find out, or look back at Chapter 1 – Tragedy Strikes for more details.)**

Uncontrollable tremors ran through my entire body, and I was chilled to the bone. My breaths shook on the way in and out. I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself, and to keep from looking at Tails's dead body.

"S-Sonic…" Amy said shakily.

"Run, Amy," I said tensely. My voice even shook.

"But—"

"I said _run!_" I shouted angrily, whipping around to glare at her, my eyes flashing.

"O-Okay," she squeaked. Amy stood and ran out of the room.

I closed my eyes, but it was no use calming myself; I was already overcome with grief and anger. My whole body shook.

"Well, that was unprecedented," Eggman said over the speakers.

"I'll give you five seconds to run," I said, my voice now hard and angry. Anger boiled inside me upon hearing his voice. He killed my best friend. He killed my brother. He deserves to die.

_Stop it,_ I told myself. _ Get a hold of yourself._ But even that was drowned out.

"Like I'm afraid of a little hedgehog," he replied, growling.

I chuckled darkly. "Wanna bet?" At that, my rage finally overcame me; my fur turned a navy blue color, almost black, and a dark aura waved around my body. My 6 meticulously-styled quills lifted and my eyes flashed completely white and faintly glowing. I left Tails's side and charged at the glass wall, my fist smashing into it and shattering the entire pane. I landed on the floor on one knee, head down, fingertips touching the floor. I lifted my head and glared at Eggman, smirking a little at the fear on his mustachioed face.

"S-Sonic, I'm sorry!" he cried, standing back. "Please, don't hurt me!"

"Not so cool now, huh Eggy?" I smirked, standing up. "Why shouldn't I hurt you? Why shouldn't I _kill _you? You are the greatest threat to Mobius, and you're begging for mercy? Don't make me laugh." I drew back my hand and threw a bolt of dark energy hurtling toward him. He narrowly dodged it, the energy skimming and ripping the shoulder of his red leather jacket, and it smashed into a machine behind him, sending it on a sparking frenzy before it burst into flame. I frowned.

Eggman drew back even further. "Please…have mercy on me….I didn't mean to kill your friend!"

"Yes you did," I growled. "You had every intention to kill him." I advanced, and Eggman recoiled, pressing himself against a table in the center of the room. His had groped for a weapon, something to use against me, but the only thing on the table was a few blueprints and a ray gun that was out of reach, as well as some cartridges.

My comlink buzzed, but I silenced it with the push of a button.

"You have caused me _so_ much pain, so much trouble, for twenty years," I hissed in his face, now upon him. "You have hurt my friends, destroyed most of Mobius, and done everything to warrant an execution under the law. You have no reason for me to let you live."

"Y-yes I do!" he cried desperately. He regained his hard-boiled composure. "You will have nothing to do once you get rid of me. Who will entertain you? Who will keep you busy? I know you, rodent, and there's nothing you like more than destroying my robots."

My hand – which I noticed had rips in the glove from shards of glass – closed around his throat. "You're _wrong_. That is merely a pass-time. Why do you think I do it?"

Eggman groped at my hand, choking.

I flung him against one of his machines hard, his weight combined with my force making the machine partially collapse. "Peace," I said, indifferent. "I have been striving for peace for years, and you have been standing in my way!" My voice rose to a yell. "Every beautiful place on Mobius destroyed, every citizen terrorized, and to what extent? Your unrealistic goals! People have _died _at your hands! You enslaved most of them! I'd be happy to have you gone! I could finally relax. I'm done with you, Eggman, I've let you live for too long, and you've finally broken me. I hope you're happy." A large sphere of dark energy, sparking with black lightning, formed between my two hands. It was tinted red and purple; the most lethal blast I had. Eggman shrunk back as I pulled my hands to my chest, ready to fling it where Eggman's heart would be…if he had one.

"Sonic, don't!"

I whipped around angrily and let the energy blast fizzle out in my hands. Sally stood outside the broken glass, looking slightly worried and scared. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Eggman lunge for the ray, which had fallen off the table, and I used a minor blast to shove him back. Sally stomped into the room, her light blue boots crunching the broken glass, and she grabbed my arm and pulled me back. I snatched my arm away from her and glared at her.

"What are you doing?!" I cried angrily. "I was in the middle of something!"

"Sonic, it is not your place to decide what happens to Eggman!" Sally cried. "That is the King's decision."

"Well, I don't care, he's _my_ enemy."

While we were fighting, Eggman had grabbed the ray and a purple-tinted cartridge and inserted it into the ray. Unfortunately, I didn't notice.

While my attention was on arguing with Sally, he pointed the ray at me and held his finger over the trigger. Instinct told me there was danger, and I whirled around, hand out, releasing a small blast of energy at Eggman. At the same time, he pulled the trigger, and the blasts from both the ray and my hand passed, traveling on parallel paths, hitting their targets. Eggman and I both recoiled, but Eggman coughed, blood splattering his already red suit and hung his head. I clutched my chest where the blast had hit me, a burning sensation spreading from my middle throughout my body. But almost as soon as it started, it stopped, and my anger – and my aura – flared. I lunged at the doctor, but didn't get far – Sally held me back, but barely.

"Sonic, calm down!"

"Why should I?" I shouted. "He killed Tails! He _killed_ my brother!"

"I think you need to go outside and get some air. I can handle things here." She shoved me toward the broken pane of glass. I glared at her and raced off, picking up Tails's body as I passed.

* * *

A half hour later, I stood among a convoy of people milling around at Freedom Fighter Headquarters. I was still Dark Sonic, and most people didn't recognize me for it. Those who did steered clear. I leaned against a wall in a corner, watching the activity around me. Eggman was loaded into a prison van. He looked over his shoulder and glared at me. I waved and smirked. Then he disappeared behind the closed doors. I also watched as Tails's body was loaded into an ambulance. The funeral would be the next day. There would be a party later on celebrating the capture of Eggman. I wasn't sure if I would go.

Amy found me outside the crowd. She seemed to sense my mood. Gee, I wonder why.

She stood near me, leaning against the wall in silence. Glancing at her, I could tell she was being shy. After a few minutes though, she spoke up.

"Are you going to the party later?" Her voice was quiet.

"You think I would go to a party after all that's happened?" I replied, keeping my voice low. "My best friend's dead." Saying it now, when adrenaline wasn't pulsing through me, was like a heavy blow to the chest. I had to pause to catch my breath and regain my cool composure. "I don't think I could handle everyone being cheery over something that resulted in the death of a Freedom Fighter."

"They're going to honor him there, you know," Amy said. "It's not all going to be happy. There'll be a toast for him. And I think for you, too."

I glanced at her, my eyes now visible as I started to calm down. She met my gaze and I looked away.

"It doesn't matter, anyway," I said. "He's gone, it's not like he's going to see it." I looked down, fending off tears. I can't cry; I'm Mobius's hero. There can be no signs of weakness in public. Someday, keeping my grief inside will suffocate me. Tails had told me that.

"I know…" she looked down. "But you should still come. He'd want you to celebrate. Besides, you're the guest of honor."

I hesitated. "Why couldn't I save him…?" I said, mostly to myself, after a few minutes of silence.

"I don't know," Amy replied. "Eggman's getting good. It just wasn't the right time or place, or situation for that matter, to be in." She glanced at me. "I'm sorry, Sonic." With that, she walked away. I stood there, thinking about what Amy had said. But my thoughts drifted back to how Tails died, how indifferent Eggman had been when my friend was shot, how helpless I had been to stop it, and how pitiful Eggman's attempts had been to defend himself.

_No, not completely pitiful,_ I thought. _He shot me._ But with what? What was the purpose of shooting me?

My anger spiked again, and I raced off to calm myself down and to fend off the grief that was now gnawing at my heart.

**(So that's the end of Chapter 2. Any tips on what could happen next? I have a general idea, but I want to hear from you. What do you think? What should I change? Stay tuned for Chapter 3, hopefully coming tomorrow! And remember to check out my other stories if you like my writing. Now my iPod died, so I'm out of music to listen to. BYE!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	3. Chapter 3 - Keeping Calm

**(Tsunaida tamashii no hi ga / mune wo sasu nara / Kotoba yori motto tsuyoi hibiki ga / ima kikoeru ka?**

** Um….Sorry! That was Japanese for….**

**If the flame of the united souls / points at your chest, / is a resonance stronger than words / being heard now?**

**I'm listening to the Soul Eater Season 1 theme song. If you looked at my profile, you know I like Soul Eater. It's an awesome anime, check it out!**

** Anywho….**

**Last time on ****_In the Dark,_**** after the death of his closest friend on a rescue mission, Sonic let his anger get the best of him and transformed into the legendary Dark Sonic, threatening Eggman and battling him face-to-mustachioed face. Dark Sonic had been on the brink of striking Eggman down forever when Sally intervened, pulling him out of the fray to prevent the death of the mad (and cowering) scientist. But at the last moment, Dark Sonic was shot with a ray that, at the time, seemed to do little but boost the hedgehog's anger. Before the furious hero could do anything rash, Sally sent him away.**

**But now things will start to go wrong. Can Sonic deal with the grief of losing his best friend and his newly refreshed anger and hatred toward his arch enemy? Or will something even more drastic happen to the hero? Look back at Chapter 2 – Dark Consequences for details, or read on to find out a bit more about Sonic's scenario.)**

It takes me an hour to calm down.

I stood in the Great Forest, wandering around where Knothole used to be before it was destroyed by Dr. Eggman, back then known as Dr. Robotnik. Being in a place with so many good memories helped calm me, but the fact that it was gone also made it take longer for me to completely regain my composure, even after I had changed back to normal. I allowed myself to grieve for my fallen friend now that I was alone; I allowed myself to cry. I recounted the battle in my head as I walked, going over what I may have done wrong and what Eggman had pleaded to me. Did I really want him gone?

_Yes_, I decided. _We need to restore places like this. We won't be able to while Eggman's alive. He'll just ruin it again._

The man is a heartless, mindless, planet-destroying, roboticizing, insane scientist who doesn't know how to give up. I can't forget that.

After a while, I got lost in my thoughts and lost track of where I was. When I finally looked around, I found I was on the edge of the woods, standing near the edge of a steep cliff face. The view was amazing; from the bluff I could see hundreds of miles of forests, a light fog hanging over the horizon. The full moon cast a glow on the treetops. Something caught my eye. A few meters to my right lay an outcropping of cliffs, a faint glow coming from one of them. I started towards the light. From experience, I knew I should investigate anything that glows.

As I neared the cave, my comlink rang. I opened the cover and saw Sally's face on the tiny screen.

"Hey," I said.

"I see you've calmed down a lot," she said, smiling.

"Yeah…" I replied, looking away and rubbing the back of my neck. "That was a little unprofessional of me."

"That's alright. It's okay to get angry sometimes," Sally said, looking sympathetic. "But no one has a temper quite like yours," she added with a light laugh.

I smiled a little. "Besides Shadow."

"Yeah, well, he's always grumpy."

"Yeah."

There was a moment of silence.

"So are you coming to the party?" Sally spoke up.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not really." Sally smirked.

I sighed, half annoyed. "Fine," I said. "When does it start?"

"In five minutes."

"That's four and a half minutes more than I need." With that, I shut off my comlink and raced off, following the GPS on my comlink.

* * *

Fifty seconds later, I stopped in front of Freedom Fighters HQ. I could hear music pulsing through the base even through the three-foot-thick steel doors, with people cheering inside. I opened the doors and walked in.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your guest of honor!" a DJ said from the turntables. Everyone turned to me and cheered. Caught up in the attention, I smiled and waved, walking toward Sally's table. I sat down across from her. She shook her head.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"You," she said. "In the spotlight. You are such an attention hog."

"Hedgehog," I corrected. She smirked.

"Now that our guest is here, why don't we get this party started?" the DJ said to the crowd. They cheered loudly. "Alright, settle. We all know the reason we're here. After years, we have finally successfully captured Dr. Ivo Robotnik, known to most of you as Dr. Eggman thanks to our own Sonic the Hedgehog!" The cheer was deafening. "Sonic, would you come up to the radio booth and tell us exactly what happened?"

I shook my head and pretended to not want to.

"C'mon!" he said. "The crowd wants to hear the story! Right, folks?" The crowd cheered again and started chanting.

"So-nic! So-nic! So-nic!"

I lifted my hands in submission and the crowd cheered. I stood from the table and walked up the steps on the raised platform where the radio booth was; just a long table with two radio announcers, Charlie the Horse and Bow the Dog from 162.6 WMRB Freedom Radio. I sat next to them, a microphone in front of me.

"Listeners," Bow began, "we have Mobius's hero, Sonic the Hedgehog on the air with us. Mr. Sonic, do you mind telling us exactly what happened this evening?"

"First, you can just call me Sonic," I said. "It was around 19:00…" I launched into my story. I started from the beginning, when the alarms went off here, at Freedom Fighters HQ. I told about our plan to rescue Tails and Amy. I told how we infiltrated the base. I told everything up to the point when Tails died. When I told about it, it felt like I was being choked. I cleared my throat to cover up my emotion. It was hard to talk about him.

When I reached the part when I turned into Dark Sonic, my head started pounding. It literally felt like someone was pounding inside my head. I stopped talking and put my head in my hand.

"You okay, Mist – I mean, Sonic?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, shaking my head to clear it. "It's just…harder than you might think to talk about it." Despite the headache, I continued, not sparing the details.

It took me an hour to tell the story.

"Thank you for sharing that with us, Mr. Hedgehog," Bow said.

"Sonic," I corrected with mock exasperation, leaning against the table and putting my head in my hand, looking bored.

"My apologies," he replied. "Anyway, I think I can speak for us all here when I say I am very sorry for the loss of your friend."

I side smiled, though grimly, and noticed that the crowd was nodding along with what the announcer had said.

"You two were close, weren't you?" Charlie added.

"Yeah," I said. "He was my best friend." I felt heat behind my eyes and my throat tightened, making my voice crack slightly at the end. I hoped it wasn't noticeable.

"Ah," Charlie replied, looking sympathetic. "Well, it shouldn't have happened. I'm sure the proper justice will be served."

I smiled a little at the thought. "Thank you," I said. Then I sat up "But don't think this changes anything. Losses happen. Granted, they're not always as close as your best friend, but even if Eggman escapes or some other evil arises, I'll still be here to defend Mobius. I'm not letting a death deter me. I'm still Mobius's hero, and nothing is going to change that."

At that, the crowd cheered.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Bow said to the crowd. "I give you Sonic the Hedgehog, hero of Mobius!"

I stood and bowed as the cheering heightened, then went back to my table to sit with Sally and Amy, who had arrived while I was talking. They both looked sympathetic towards me.

"What?" I asked. "Don't give me that look, that's what happened."

"I know, but…" Sally began. "We never heard the full story."

"And it's so sad!" Amy cried, tears in her eyes. No one around us noticed her cry, the music had restarted and my favorite song and theme song, "His World," was playing loudly.

"Don't cry for me," I said, looking away. "I'm not the important one here."

I thought over the story I had just told. Why had it been so hard for me to talk about my dark form? What was with the headache? As if on cue, the pounding returned, and never fully ceased, making it hard for me to enjoy the night.

Hours later, near two in the morning, I was showing off my breakdancing skills to fans when a small explosion went off in the back of the room. People ran from the scene, some screaming, and the sprinklers in that section went off. Then, an announcement came on, seeming to resonate from the explosion.

"This is a reminder to you all," the announcement said in Eggman's voice. "I am not down for the count yet. You may have captured me, but my works are everywhere. Sonic, I'm sure you'll find this out soon enough."

The message concluded with five more explosions around the perimeter of the room. The pounding in my head intensified, but I tried to ignore it by guiding the panicking guests to evacuate and helped some other Freedom Fighters sort through the mess and remove the few injured people.

One thing's for sure, my problems with the Eggman were far from over.

**(So there's the end of chapter….3 is it? Yeah. Sorry for the late post, I went camping on Friday and wasn't able to post on Thursday or Friday or whenever my last post was. Hopefully I'll be able to post more often, every day hopefully, but with school winding down I'm not sure how busy I'll be. The first week after school gets out I'll be out of town, so not sure if I'll be able to post then. But after that, it's POSTING GALLORE!**

**Ok, I can't think, I'm half listening to a SEGAbits update while NOT really listening to it if that makes sense. It's kinda on in the background. So yeah. **

**I appreciate the reviews! Keep on reading and reviewing; maybe give me some ideas because the story is not set in stone yet, so I will consider your ideas! Until next time!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	4. Chapter 4 - Awakening Anger

**(AAAAAHHHHH CHAOS HELP ME! I'M ON A FANGIRL FRENZY! Information about the new Sonic game, Sonic Lost World, came out today and SEGA gave us (meaning Sonic fans) the entire (surprising) story plot, some of Sonic's new moves, and box art! I'm not spoiling, so check out the SEGAbits or SEGA website if you want information! I'm stoked!**

**Last time on ****_In the Dark,_**** Sonic, now calm, headed off to a party celebrating the capture of Dr. Eggman. While he was there, he was asked to recount the events of that evening to the audience and over the radio. Sonic found it difficult to talk about Tails's death and, strangely, about his dark form. He found himself getting pounding headaches at random intervals of the night. Towards the end of the party, several unexplained explosions went off, injuring several Mobians. During these explosions, a record message from Eggman played, warning everyone that there would be more attacks despite his being locked up, as well as a strange message to Sonic, telling him he would know how lethal the doctor could be even when he wasn't around. Could this be a warning? What has the evil madman planned now? Look back at Chapter 3 – Keeping Calm for more details, or read on to find out more about what could be going on!)**

I didn't sleep that night.

My dreams were haunted by images of Tails collapsing on the floor of the warehouse, the blood pooling around him on the ground. Even though I had washed my blood-stained gloves, I still felt like I had his blood on my hands. The irregular pounding in my head was getting obnoxious as well, and continued well throughout the night.

Luckily, I was used to being an insomniac. I spend many restless nights thinking about recent battles, but this time it seemed I wouldn't be sleeping for a long time. I was up before first light and took off to try and clear my head. While I was running, I had another breakdown; I couldn't fight the tears. Luckily I was going too fast for any of the lingering people on the streets to notice.

I ran along Emerald Coast as far as the beach and coastline would take me. Despite my fear of water, sometimes being near it was calming; just seeing the sunrise over the horizon was enough to stop the pounding in my head. Remembering Tails's funeral took place early in the morning, I headed in the direction of the Green Hill Memorial Cemetery to help set up.

When I got there, people were already setting up chairs. Without a word, I started to help, unfolding chairs and putting them in neat rows. No one questioned me. No one talked to me. They just let me do my thing, as everyone so often does.

An hour or so later, when over five hundred chairs had been set up and large ceramic pots of flowers had been laid out around the perimeter of the cemetery, Tails's body was brought out in a marble coffin. His face was uncovered, eyes closed, hands folded over his wound, looking peaceful now. When I looked at him, I couldn't help but see his dead, frightened face from that night and remember all the good times we had that were now just a memory. The pounding in my head began again, though dull, it hurt my head, and I put my head in my hand, grimacing slightly.

"Are you okay, sir?" one of the directors for the funeral asked.

"I'm fine," I said, a little too sharply. I cleared my throat. "I'm fine, thanks," I tried again, calmer this time.

The woman nodded and turned back to reorganizing one of the flowerpots.

While we were working, a dark grey van pulled up. Two cops stepped out of the front and opened the back of the van, two more cops stepping out, leading a handcuffed Dr. Eggman.

Suddenly, my mind went hazy. All that I knew was anger, and that I wanted to kill the one who murdered my best friend. _I want him dead._

The world was muffled to me as I started toward him. I only saw him, and my goal. Before anyone could stop me, I was behind him. I grabbed his shoulder with a firm grip and wrenched him around to face me, my hand closing on his throat. Behind his reflective sunglasses, his eyes were fearful, and in his glasses an enraged Sonic stared back at me.

"Why did you do it, huh?" I hissed in his face. I spoke through clenched teeth. "Why did you kill him?" Hands clamped around my arms and pulled me back. I struggled against them, though not using my full strength. I have one goal, and it doesn't include hurting anyone else. It doesn't _include _anyone else, period.

"Let me go!" I yelled, thrashing. "He killed him! He killed Tails! He killed my best friend!"

"Take it easy, Sonic," one of the cops holding me said, tightening his grip on my arm. "Justice will be served in due time."

"No, it will never be served! You've seen all the terrible things he's done, execute him! Let me finish it _now!_" My voice no longer felt like my own. I glared at one of the cops and hissed through my teeth. "Why is he here? What use does he have at a funeral?"

"He is here to see all the pain and suffering he can cause by killing one," he said calmly.

Something inside me felt reassured. He needed to see what he has done wrong. He _needed_ to see what damage he can inflict.

Then the officer added, "We hope he will show remorse."

I snapped again. I wrenched myself away from the two cops and glared at them, fists clenched. "You think he'll show remorse for all of this? What, are you planning on letting him go anytime soon? Do you think he will escape? The guy's an evil genius! _Evil genius, _people!He could escape, and he's not going to change! He craves destruction!" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a nasty smirk on Eggman's face. I whipped my head around and glared at him. "What are _you_ laughing at?"

The second police officer grabbed me again and sat me down in a chair. "I think you need to calm down, Sonic," he said sternly. "His fate will be decided in court in three days time. Until then, you have to trust us."

I nodded and put my head in my hands, breathing hard, now acknowledging the pounding in my head that had returned, now more intense than ever. As I tried to calm down, I realized I had been on the very brink of turning dark over nothing. I realized I had almost been lost in another mind, one that only knows anger and hate and the death of my arch enemy, and I couldn't bring myself out of it. Something was happening to me, and I didn't know what.

While I calmed myself, the funeral procession began, but I hardly paid attention until people were asked to share something about Tails. When the manager asked if anyone had anything to say about him, my hand immediately shot up. The woman gestured to me and I took her place at the podium.

"Tails was…my brother," I began. "Maybe not biologically, but I loved him like one. He was my partner, my player two, my best bud…he was everything to me. And he had to be taken away." I had to grip the podium to keep my emotions – and specifically my anger – in check. "He was young, innocent, and didn't deserve all the fear and pain that was inflicted on him throughout his short life, but he was forced into the world of evil when he partnered with me. He joined me in my fight against _you,_ Eggman, and he paid the ultimate price," I glared at the doctor, now shaking, my rage escalating, and I couldn't stop it. My voice shook. "I hope you're happy. You've finally found something that could break me, and you will _pay for it!_" My voice rose at the end to a ferocious yell that sounded neither human, animal, nor anthro. I clutched my head; the pounding was faster, harder, and more painful than ever, and I knew something was wrong. Vaguely, I heard the doctor laughing maniacally in the background, but I didn't act on it. Without really thinking about it, I took off towards my house in Mobotropolis at break-neck speed to prevent anyone from seeing me break down, but anyone watching couldn't miss the blue streak gradually turn dark blue, then navy, almost black.

When I got to my house, I slammed the door and dead-bolted it, then went down to my basement and piled all the furniture up against the door. I crouched in the middle of the room, hands clutching my head, and screamed a loud, enraged scream, my eyes blank, though closed tight, my fur dark blue, my aura flaring.

Inside me, a voice that was not my own spoke.

_"It has begun."_

The war with myself has begun.

**(Wait, what just happened? Yes, Sonic just went Dark, and I capitalize "Dark" for a reason. Why did he go Dark? What happened? Is Sonic mental? This is where the real storyline begins. Come back tomorrow (or the next day, depending on how busy I am) as the answers start coming! And keep on reviewing! Any ideas? What would you like to see in the story? What do you think is up with Sonic? I'd love to hear what you have to offer! I consider all ideas given. :)**

** What's ironic is I'm roll-playing with a friend, and it's Sonic's birthday in it, so Sonic's fooling around with Tails right now, so it's odd to transition from writing Sonic's final words about Tails to dancing with his best buddy. For those who don't know, roll-playing, or RPing, is when you create a scenario and act it out through text messages or any type of writing, and you can be anyone or do anything you want, and it can go for as long as you want. Actions are set off in *s or –s. Example:**

**Sonic: Hey! *waves***

** So that's something you can really get into. :) I've had a roll-play go for a year once. This one's been going for….about 5 months.**

** But I digress.**

** Check in soon for the next chapter! Until then, check out my other stories and leave reviews! Bye guys!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	5. Chapter 5 - A New Battle

**(SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd has nothing to say at this hour.**

**If you've ever seen "Sonic X Fun Panel" on YouTube, you'd get that reference.**

**Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

**Strange things are happening to our hero. When grief, anger, and some new entity provokes Sonic at his best friend Tails's funeral, he finds himself losing it. Abruptly leaving the ceremony, Sonic goes home to find out what's wrong with him, and why he transformed into Dark Sonic without a real reason. But Doctor Eggman is being rather ominous…does the evil mad man have something to do with Sonic's misfortune? Read on for answers, or go back to Chapter 4 – Awakening Anger for more info and details!**

**Sorry for the late post, I was busy last week with school ending and was on vacation this week. SCHOOL GOT OUT FOR SUMMER! WHOOOO! Meh…**

**ONWARD!)**

I was fighting for my sanity.

Hours, or maybe even days passed. I sat at a table with a single chair in my basement, my head in my arms on the tabletop. In my head, I fought an unknown force that was trying to take control. I found that it – _he_ – could hear my thoughts, and I could hear his. This new entity was, indeed, my Dark form, but with a mind of his own. He had goals – terrible goals – to rule the planet and destroy anyone and everyone who got in his path. He needed me as a sort of vessel, to contain and stabilize his power. And there was no way I would let him use me, with _his_ version of how the world should work.

After a long while, I vaguely heard someone knock on my door.

I ignored it, not wanting anyone to see me this way. I wasn't even sure I could take my mind off Dark, my new name for the entity, but his attack attempts seemed to be subsiding, leaving me feeling frustrated and on edge.

"Sonic, we know you're here," a female's voice called after a minute of no reply, knocking again. "Don't make us come in there."

"Oh forget it, he's not going to answer," another girl's voice said. "Allow me." There were several loud bangs on the door, and then a _slam_ as it was thrown off its hinges. My ears twitched at the sound.

"Whoops!" the second voice said.

"At least we're in," the first replied.

I listened to them walk across the floor above me, calling my name and looking in every room. Eventually, a door opened – the doorway at the top of the basement stairs – and a pair of feet pounded down the steps. Whoever it was tried opening the door at the bottom of the staircase, but it hardly budged due to all the furniture piled against it on the other side.

""Darn it, Sonic!" the first voice called. "Amy! I think I found him!" A set of footsteps ran across the house above me and down the steps, also trying the door.

"I got this," the second voice said. There was more banging on the door. With every _bang,_ the door opened an inch wider, moving the stuff aside, until there was enough room for Amy to squeeze through, her oversized red and yellow mallet in hand, followed by Sally. Both of them had been at Tails's funeral, along with all my other friends. They had all seen my breakdown; it was only inevitable that they would come find me looking for answers. I kept my head in my arms.

"Sonic Hedgehog!" Sally cried almost angrily, walking – or more like stomping – up to the table and placing hands on the edge. I could feel her eyes burning into my upraised quills. "What's going on with you?"

"I…don't know," I said through clenched teeth, my voice muffled by my arms.

"Well, try and find out," she snapped.

I said nothing.

After a few moments, Sally seemed to calm whatever anger toward me she had and placed a light hand on my shoulder. "Why don't you try calming down?"

"You think I haven't tried?!" I cried, abruptly lifting my head to glare at her. Sally gasped and took her hand off my shoulder as Amy took a step back, her eyes wide. "I have no control!" I groaned and put my head back in my hands.

Amy, who was leaning on her hammer, looked genuinely concerned.

"What exactly is happening?" Sally asked, frowning.

"Like I said, I don't know," I said tersely. "But from what I can tell, my Dark form somehow was given a mind of his own and wants to control me." Apparently, Dark didn't like me talking about him, because he made small, less powerful attempts to control me, making me cringe and tense. It was like a warning attack.

"Maybe Eggman has something to do with it," Amy quipped. "He always has some connection to whatever bad things are happening."

"Maybe," I murmured, half distracted by keeping the attacks at bay. "But if Dark is playing with my emotions, and Eggman did cause this, why would he want me to kill his master?"

"Shut up! Shut up about me!" Dark shouted in my head.

"Why don't _you_ shut up?" I thought angrily. "You don't have control here!"

"Not yet," Dark replied with a smirk.

"You're right, it doesn't make much sense," Sally said, catching my attention once more. "But we have to try. What do we do?"

"You don't have to get involved," I said, looking up, my anger subsiding. "This is my battle. I don't think you can help me with this one."

Sally smiled sympathetically. "I may not be able to back you up, but I can help you figure out how to solve this problem."

"Yeah!" Amy chimed in. "Your battle is our battle, too. Always has been, always will be."

I smiled for what felt like the first time in days. "Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. Really."

Both girls smiled.

"Anyway, where do we start?" Amy asked.

"I say we talk to the good doctor," I said. Dark growled in my thoughts.

"Sonic, are you sure?" Sally asked, concerned. "I mean, ever since…that day, you can't even look at him without wanting to kill him. You're not exactly…stable."

I looked down at the mention of the fight in Robotropolis two days ago, thinking of how I'd failed to save Tails. I resented Eggman for it all, and it would be better off for all of us if we destroyed him, but I needed the OK from Sal. Though I often ignored orders, there were some matters I couldn't and shouldn't handle myself.

"I'll control myself," I said quietly, mostly trying to reassure myself. "I need answers, and I'm not going to get them by killing him."

Sally nodded, looking unsure. "If you're sure…"

"I am," I said, looking at her, my green eyes visible now that I'd calmed and weren't being attacked. "You can't ask him without me."

"Alright, but let us know if Dark attacks you and you need to stop or whatever."

I nodded, appreciating that she understood my situation.

"So, you ready to go now?" Amy asked.

"Sure," I said, standing. "Let's do it to it."

**(Blaaaaahhhhh….short chapter. I like suspense. :3 I'll post the next chapter tomorrow, when…..THINGS. HAPPEN. XD No, you'll finally get answers as to what's going on. YAY!**

**So. Tell me what you think is going on and why Sonic is MENTALLY INSANE. Just kidding, he's not insane, it's something else ENTIRELY. Until next time…**

**ENDWARD! (Autocorrect doesn't say that's not a ward…..And it didn't notice my "ward" misspelling! IT HATES ME! Derpicus. Now it listens. XD))**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	6. Chapter 6 - The Ugly Truth

**(I seriously have nothing to do. **

** Last time on ****_In the Dark,_**** after the strange events at Tails's funeral and a new enemy forming in his mind, Sonic's questions have yet to be answered. When some concerned friends find the hedgehog fighting for control in his basement, the three of them, Sonic, Sally, and Amy, decide they need a plan to get rid of whatever is tormenting Sonic. However, first they need answers. Can Sonic pull himself together long enough to find out the secret behind his Dark form going awry? Or will the truth put him over the edge? Read on for answers, or go back to Chapter 5 – A New Battle for details!)**

I need to find out what's going on.

Sally, Amy and I walked down the street, much to my displeasure. Not only would I have preferred to have run to the prison, but people were staring. Even though not many know about my Dark form, they weren't as blind as Amy could be. They saw it was me, and this form scared them. I wanted to tell them they didn't have to be afraid, that I was the same hero they all looked up to, but they all either turned away and pretended not to notice or ran inside, locking the doors. I'd just about had it when a group of little kids ran into an alley. I growled to myself and took off ahead.

"Sonic, wait!" Sally called, and she and Amy had to sprint to keep me from going too far ahead.

Naturally, I reached Freedom Fighter Headquarters in no time, and waited impatiently for the girls to catch up, my foot tapping rapidly on the front steps.

"Don't…run off like that…" Sally panted with her hands on her knees.

"Sorry," I said coldly. "Let me know how you feel when people run from you just because you look different."

Sally frowned and straightened up. "Fine, but wait for us at the prison entrance."

Without hesitating, I raced inside.

I was just as my nickname implied; a blue blur. Well, at least to the people in the headquarters. I raced down hallways until I got out the back of the building. In the backyard was a large and beautiful courtyard, with a metal statue of the most important Freedom Fighters, including myself, in the center, which gleamed in the sunlight. Behind the statue was a chain link fence, with curls of barbed wire at the top and base of it. Behind the circle of fencing sat a tiny concrete shack with just a door and a small window that was bolted shut. Armed guards stood the gate of the fence and the door of the shack. The prison's security had doubled since I'd last been here several months ago. Back then, I had been the one being imprisoned, framed for a crime I didn't do. **(Read my first story, ****_Framed_****, for the full scoop on that. :3)**

I stopped by the first set of guards and waited for Sally and Amy once again. When they caught up, one of the guards at the gate, an anthro dog, spoke.

"State your business," he said in a gruff voice with a Downunda accent. Reading his name tag, I saw that his name was Redbone.

"We're here to see Doctor Eggman," I told him. "It's important."

"What for?" Redbone asked. "I have orders not to let anyone see him, mate. Especially a bloke like you."

I frowned. "I have a few questions for him regarding my Dark form. I think he did something to me that won't let me change back."

"Hmph, coulda fooled me," he said with a grunt.

I growled, my eyes turning completely white and I clenched my fists, which were shaking.

"Easy, Sonic," Sally said. "Let me do the talking." She stepped up to the guard. "You wouldn't refuse a direct order from the _leader_ of the Freedom Fighters, would you?"

"N-No, ma'am," he stammered. He glanced at me, looking confused.

"Then I suggest you let us see Dr. Eggman," she said. "It _is_ important."

"Yes, ma'am." Redbone then typed in the code to the gates and they parted, sliding open, and the three of us walked past, the dog guard saluting as we passed.

We walked across the couple yards of grass between the fence and the shack and one of the guards, having overheard the conversation with the other guard, slid a key attached to a chain on his belt into a slot and the door slid open, revealing a steal elevator with yet another guard inside. Sally, Amy and I stepped in and pressed one of the few buttons in the inside wall. The door closed and we shot downwards into the underground prison.

Once the elevator stopped and the door slid open a minute later, Sally asked the guard that was with us which cell Eggman was in.

"Cell 102B," the guard said. "Our most secure prison cell."

"Thank you," Sally said, and led us down the long hall lined with cells; just a bunch of doors with numbers on them and a little gray security box above each door. There was also a small, high window on the door. Eventually, after several minutes of walking, we reached a door at the very end of the hall marked _Cellblock 102B_. A guard who stood by the door unlocked it for us and led us in. Inside was another concrete room, with two barred windows and a barred door. Inside _that,_ sitting on a cement bench with his wrists and ankles shackled both together and to the wall behind him, was my nemesis, Dr. Eggman, clad in the bright orange prison clothes all inmates wore.

He looked up, and a sly grin spread across his face. "Well," he said, "What a pleasant surprise. I've been expecting you, hedgehog. A little worked up, I see?"

Once again my aura flared, as did my anger. I started toward the cell, but immediately Amy and Sally each grabbed one of my arms and struggled to hold me back.

"What did you do to me?!" I shouted. "You did this to me, you sick-minded—"

"Ah, ah, ah," the doctor said, smirking. "Mind your language, rodent."

"Sonic, you said you'd control yourself," Amy reminded me gently.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. "Yeah, you're right," I said after a minute. "Sorry." The girls released me. "Now," I continued, "I want answers, and I want them _now._"

Eggman smirked. "Give me one good reason why I should."

"Oh, let's see, you're in a cage, I'm not. You have no power, I do. I have the power to kill you, the last time you came close was…when? Oh yeah. Pretty much _never. _That's three reasons. "

Eggman frowned. "Touché." But he didn't continue.

I frowned as well. "Tell me now, or I'll decide to overpower these two, break through those bars, and kill you here and now. Or maybe I'll just make it more painful and slow. You'll tell me then."

He heaved a big sigh. "Fine, I'll tell you, but only so you know how hopeless it is to resist. That ray I blasted you with was a sort of mind control, but it malfunctioned and somehow took control of just your Dark form and gave him a mind of his own. He has been input with my goals, but he may have twisted them a bit. My goal with the ray was to brainwash you to work in my Eggman Empire and fight against your friends, but I suppose this is better, in a way. I get to watch you struggle with controlling yourself."

I cringed, but not because of what Eggman had said. "So I was right, then," I said. "You do have something to do with everything wrong with my life."

"Yes, pretty much."

"I suppose you're not going to tell me how to get rid of him, are you?"

"Nope," the doctor said. "Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you."

"So you planned all this without a way to cure it?" I struggled to keep myself from shouting.

"Remember, this was completely accidental," he said. "It was a complication with my original plan, but otherwise, yes. Why would I create something and make a cure that the Freedom Fighters could use?"

I hated to admit it, but he had a point.

"So…what? I'm just going to be stuck like this forever?" I asked.

"I'm sure there are some possibilities that could change you back, but you can't rid yourself of your Dark form," he replied. "He is a part of you, and getting rid of him would pretty much be getting rid of a part of your soul, which could ultimately destroy you, one way or another."

I crossed my arms. It was hard to believe something so evil could be a part of me.

"You could use the Emeralds," Eggman said with a smirk. "Either it'll help you regain the control you lost, or it'll turn the Emeralds' energy into negative energy and…backfire."

"Shut up, I'm not listening to you," I snapped. Before he could say anything else, I sent a small blast of dark energy at him, and it skimmed his arm. Eggman caught his breath, trying to keep from crying out. I turned on my heel and sped out the door before Sally or Amy could yell at me for the attack. No, I have much bigger issues to deal with, like keeping Dark from taking control…and to find a way to change back.

* * *

Several hours later, I sat in a local library – a place I rarely went to – and flipped through books about objects of power with good energy. Mostly the books talked about the Chaos Emeralds, but they were too risky. I could end up transforming into Super Sonic or end up completely losing it and giving in to Dark's control. There _had_ to be some other way, but any possibilities I came across were either lost to the ages or could be used for good or evil, depending on who was using it. After several hours, I sighed, put my head in my hand and closed the book, exhausted and frustrated. I closed my eyes and talked to Dark in my mind.

"Why do you want to rule Mobius?" I thought.

Dark didn't answer at first, considering his response. "The world you live in now is sickening, all the happiness and light and…bleh. People fight a lot over nothing. In my world, there would be no fighting. Anyone who disobeys my laws or defies me shall die."

"Yeah, and the only reason they _wouldn't _fight in your world is because they're afraid of you," I replied. "People shouldn't live in a world where there's only fear and darkness and strict laws. They need freedom and—"

"Blah, blah, blah, on and on," Dark said. "I don't want to hear any of that lovey-dovey crap. It's worthless to me, and I don't believe in it. If you let me take control, you and I will be a god in this new world. You could be a demigod."

"Tempting," I thought sarcastically. "But no. I'd rather die than… hold that thought."

My comlink ringing interrupted our conversation. I answered it, seeing Sally on the tiny screen.

"Hey," I said.

"Sonic, could you come to my house?" she asked. "I think I found something that might help."

Hardly a minute later, I reached Sally's house, out in the suburbs of Mobotropolis. Sally let me in and led me to her study.

"I found this out in a book entitled _Power Stones Archive_," she said. "Apparently there's a set of stones that is meant to separate the good from the bad. I doubt it'll completely destroy your Dark side, but it should at least get rid of the Dark entity that's trying to take control. Make sense?"

"I guess," I said.

"They're called the Light Stones. There were originally seven, but four of them were destroyed by an evil sorceress." She pointed to a picture of the three remaining Light Stones, each a bright orange gem that seemed to glow. "I think it's worth a shot."

"Does it say where they are?" I asked.

"There is only one known location," she said. "People claim to have seen a faint glow much like the glow from these stones in one of the caves on the Green-Capped Bluffs. That's not too far from here."

My eyes widened a little. "That's great." I smiled. "Because I know exactly where that is."

**(I actually finished this in the same day as the other one…*le gasp* I'm still gonna post this tomorrow…(which, by the time you read this, would be today, or yesterday, or a week ago, or a year ago…) But I'm so tempted…NU! STAWPIT. OK, I'm done. Next chapter coming soon! Stay tuned and review what you think of the plot so far!**

**Keep on reading, readers!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Ultimate Form

** (I'm tired…Why am I typing this so early in the morning…? Okay, it's only 8 right now, but so what?**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark,_**** Sonic and his friends successfully got the answers they needed as to why Sonic is fighting to keep his control over his anger and his mind. Dr. Eggman did indeed have something to do with it, but not in the way he'd hoped originally. Now, the three friends want to find a way to rid Sonic of Dark, the entity that's been terrorizing him, and they may have found their first lead; the Light Stones. Sonic, thinking he knows where they are, will lead them. What will the heroes find in the caves? Will it be a trap? Read on to find out more about their next adventure, or go back to Chapter 6 – The Ugly Truth to find out more about what's been happening to our hedgehog hero!**

**Several hours later….BACK TO TYPING.)**

A few minutes later, I ran in front of Sally and Amy, who were riding on hover scooters behind me, across town toward the Great Forest. When we reached the ruined Knothole village, Sally spoke.

"You came through here?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said, looking over my shoulder at her. "It's home to me."

Sally frowned a little, looking around at what had been the original Freedom Fighters headquarters. We'd hid from Robotnik for many years here, but it was never meant to last. I frowned and looked ahead again.

It took us a while to find the spot, since I had pretty much been lost when I found it, but eventually, we found our way to the bluffs. I looked around at the scenery, more beautiful in the daytime than night, when the sunlight seemed to make the tree leaves gleam and the clouds created shadows on the treetops. In the distance was a range of mountains and foothills, rolling across the horizon, hazy and pale green. I could sit here and listen to the birds all day and forget all my problems if I wanted to. But I have a mission to complete.

I looked to my right, and sure enough there was the cave I'd seen when I came here to calm myself. The glow was harder to see with the sunlight, but it was definitely there, seeming to flicker and dance on the cave.

Sally followed my gaze. "In there?" she asked.

"Yeah. Can't you see the glow?" I said.

"Yeah."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Amy chimed in. "Let's go!"

I nodded and headed toward the entrance.

"Wait!" Sally called. "We don't know what's in there!"

"Only one way to find out!" I called back, and disappeared into the cave.

It was larger than I thought. In fact, it was more like a tunnel. The glow came from far off, and I started toward it. No sooner had I gone ten steps when a slab of rock I stepped on pushed down like a button and an array of stone spikes shot out of the walls. I jumped back just in time.

"Whoa, nice welcome," I murmured. Using my Dark powers, I blasted the maze of spikes and cleared a path for us to go through. I looked back at the girls, who were just inside the cave, and smiled. "C'mon!" I said, and jogged down the tunnel.

Once we were past the spikes, I stepped cautiously, watching the ground for more "buttons of doom."

"Heads up!" Amy shouted. I looked up and stepped back just as an ax swung from the ceiling down, just an inch above the ground, and continued swinging like a pendulum.

"Close shave," I smirked. This is how I know I'm myself; making jokes in the face of danger.

I timed it, and when the pendulum-ax was near one of the walls, I raced past, stopping just before another one swung down. I did the same for the next three axes that swung down, just millimeters from my nose. Sally did what I did, hopping through them, while Amy daringly stood in front of them and used her hammer to smash them into the wall, where they stuck. Once we had rejoined, I gave them a thumbs up.

"Nice going, guys," I smirked before continuing on. The glow was nearby and brighter than ever. I suspected at least two more obstacles.

I didn't have to go far to find out the next one. The floor seemed to lurch out from under me and I fell…almost. I grabbed the edge of the floor and looked down as a few stones I'd kicked up fell down into a seemingly bottomless pit, eventually landing with a soft _plop_ in what I could only assume was water.

"Sonic!" the girls cried.

"I'm alright!" I called, my voice echoing in the pit. Sally offered her hand and I grabbed it, pulling myself up.

"Okay, that was too close for comfort," I said, brushing dust off my legs. "It seems like someone doesn't want us here."

"Really, what told you that?" Sally said sarcastically.

I smirked and pretended not to notice the sarcasm. "Well, the traps of imminent death, and that skeleton." I pointed to a skeleton in between the axes that had a neat cut in the front of the skull.

Amy shuddered. "Let's get out of here," she said. "This place is creepy."

"I told you, you didn't have to come," I reminded her. "You can head back if you want."

"N-no, I wanna come!" she corrected herself.

"Alright then," I said, turning back to the pit, which was several meters across. "Easy," I said, cracking my knuckles. I backed up and then took a running start at the pit, leaping over it in a single bound when I reached the edge. I cleared it easily and grabbed a chain that was hanging on the wall and tossed it to the girls. Unfortunately, that triggered the next trap. Small squares in the wall opened up and arrows and knives shot out at all sides. While Sally and Amy swung over the pit, I raced past through the trap, too fast for the weapons to hit me. Amy ran next, and I shot small energy blasts out of my palm to keep away any arrows or knives that came too close to her. Sally simply replaced the chain on the hook where it had been hanging and the squares closed up, the ground littered with the weapons.

"Well, if it's _that_ easy," Amy scoffed. I smirked.

"What was the point of all that?" I asked, picking up an arrow at my feet.

"Do you have to make a joke out of everything?" Sally asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yes, yes I do," I said, jabbing the arrow tip into the wall. I then turned around to see where we had ended up.

The tunnel opened up into a large cavern, a glowing orange stone sitting on a pedestal in the center of the room. Torches lined the walls of the room, intensifying the glow we'd seen earlier, their light dancing on the walls. Without hesitation, I walked toward the Light Stone.

"Wait," Sally said. "It could be another trap."

"We made it past those, didn't we?" I said. When I neared the stone, a cage slammed down around the perimeter of the room, separating me from Amy and Sally.

"Please," I scoffed. "What's this for?" I smiled to myself and reached for the stone.

As soon as I touched it, I felt momentarily frozen in place. The stone glowed brighter and a strange black smoke flew out of my chest, knocking me backwards and changing me back to normal. The smoke raced around the room, extinguishing the torches and eventually pooled in front of me, taking the shape of my Dark form with glowing white eyes. He wasn't completely solid; the edges of his body were foggy and mingled with his aura.

"Oh," I said. "That's what the cage is for." I jumped to my feet and almost immediately sped toward Dark, fist pulled back, prepared for a punch.

Dark, indifferent, simply put his hand out in front of him and blasted me in the chest, sending my flying backwards, smashing through one of the cage's thick bars and into the wall next to the entrance to the room. I winced and stood shakily.

"What was…that?" I asked.

"I'm not just going to let you beat me to death," he said in a deeper version of my voice, though harder, like mine was like when I was in any form that gave me power. "I doubt you'd want to do that anyway, considering I'm you. Remember what the doctor said. You destroy me, you destroy yourself."

I growled, knowing he was right. But if I couldn't get rid of him, I could weaken him. I ran at full speed toward him and was able to sweep his feet out from under him. He fell, and I pulled my foot back to kick him, but when it got near him, Dark grabbed my ankle and flung me into the wall again. I wiped away the blood that trickled down from my mouth and stood again.

"What about you?" I said. "You can't kill me either, or weaken me. Where would that leave you if you, in some unknown universe, took control of me?"

Dark laughed. "You think I can't heal myself? If I take control I'll have no problem using the Chaos Emeralds to heal my body and boost my power. In fact, that's one of my goals; turning the Emeralds and Chaos in my favor. I may not be able to kill you, but I can certainly do damage, and that will make it so much easier to control you."

I growled. "You think it's just gonna be that easy?" I once again charged at him and, this time, slammed him into the wall, pinning him by his forearms.

"Oh, trust me," he said with a smirk. "This is nothing." He kicked me backwards and off of him, but I back flipped to my feet before I could go too far. Hardly before my feet were flat on the ground, I went into my Sonic-spin and spin-dashed into him, but I hardly did any damage and bounced back to my feet. Finally, Dark went on the offensive and lunged at me. I threw him aside before the punch he was about to throw could hit me, and he was thrown in between two of the cage bars. Almost immediately he recovered and charged at me again, but this time I grabbed one of his fists and he grabbed mine. We were in a stalemate, struggling to 1UP the other.

"So, you think you can beat me, eh?" I said through clenched teeth.

"I don't think I can, I know I can," Dark replied, grinning darkly. "I'm a far more advanced version of you."

"You think so, huh? Don't underestimate us normal types."

He smirked and freed his fist from my hand and placed it on my stomach. My eyes widened, realizing what he was going to do, but it was too late to react. He blasted me backwards, smashing me through another bar and into the wall, creating a good sized crater. Blood streamed down my side where his energy blast severed my skin, creating a large gash in my side. I groaned and cupped my hands over the wound, my own blood quickly staining my gloves.

"Sonic, no!" Amy cried, and in a flash whipped out her hammer and used it to break the bars that separated her and Sally from our arena. Sally ran to my aid while Amy charged at Dark, prepared to swing, and Dark calmly put his hand out in front of him and blasted her. She used her mallet like a bat and hit the blast back at him, where it hit him in almost the exact same place where his blast hit me. His eyes widened as black blood dripped onto the floor.

"Impossible…" he whispered just before Amy swung again, sending him flying into the wall, making the rocks crumble around him. He grunted and dissipated into black smoke and flew towards me.

"Crap, not again," I murmured, tensing. Dark flew back into me through my wound, causing me to cry out in pain. I clenched my teeth as sweat trickled down my face and coughed, black and crimson blood splattering the floor.

"C'mon, we need to get you to the hospital," Sally said calmly, placing her hand on mine.

"N-No," I said in a strained voice. "Just…get me home."

Sally shook her head and mumbled something about stubbornness and helped me to my feet. I grimaced and leaned on her for support, my mind now addled. Together, Sally and Amy helped me walk down the tunnel, the scattered remains of activated traps around us. No sooner did we get outside that I passed out, too exhausted to go another step.

**(That was a tough battle. So much for the Light Stone. But maybe it'll come in handy later on. (?) Stay tuned for the next exciting attachment to ****_In the Dark_****, hopefully coming tomorrow. My parents want me to put together a PowerPoint with all the photos from my vacation last week, and I have a LOT of photos, so I'm going to be working on that today and tomorrow and some chores. Being home alone during the summer is apparently a lot more complicated than it should be.**

**Anyway, review what you think so far and what you think should happen in the next chapter, and so on and so forth! I consider and appreciate all ideas, and will give credit to those who give me them!**

**Bye for now!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	8. Chapter 8 - Healing

**(Oh. My. Chaos. I have had SO MUCH WRITERS BLOCK lately, it's not even funny. Just kidding, it's hilarious. HA HA HA. No. I'm irritated it's taken me so long. ^^; Anyway, here it is!**

**Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

******Sonic, Sally, and Amy set out to investigate the first of the three Light Stones, mysterious orange rocks that have the power to separate the good from the bad. A trap-riddled cave leads the trio into a strange cavern containing the first Stone. However, upon touching it, Dark was released from Sonic's body, and a fierce caged battle followed. Sonic, now seriously injured and unconscious, is now back in Dark's hands, and vice versa. Did the hero survive? Or has even more trouble risen? Read Chapter 7 – The Ultimate Form for more details on this gruesome fight, or keep reading to see the aftermath of the battle in the cavern.)**

Sally and Amy stood by a grave, tears in their eyes. Sally laid a vase of flowers on the freshly dug earth, along with a small silver medal with the Freedom Fighters crest on it.

"He was one of my best friends," she whispered.

"He was all of our friends," Amy said quietly.

I frowned at the ground, recounting the battle that Tails was lost in. My twisted reflection in the curved glass of the vase stared back up at me, showing me how I felt…warped and broken.

When I had woken a day after the battle in the caves, I had been Dark Sonic once again, my mind inhabited by the evil entity that's been haunting me for what seemed like ages. Sally and Amy had driven me home, put me in bed, and placed a cool washcloth on my forehead. I was lucky Dark and I both was unconscious, or it would've been the ideal time for him to take control. Because of that fear, I haven't slept in days. It's been two days since I woke, since I was too weak to move, let alone get up. Now, I gingerly touched my fingers to the gauze wrapped around my torso, the gash in my side stitched up and bandaged. Dark doesn't get the medical attention and friends who care; he'd push them all away, anyway. I do, and I'm grateful for that.

I turned away from Tails's grave, shutting out the memories and grief. "So what's our next move?"

Sally turned to look at me. "You still need to heal. You could barely run here."

"But I _did_ run here," I murmured.

"Not at more than a hundred miles per hour. On your terms, that's slow."

I frowned. It was true. It had been too painful to run above one hundred, but I managed. I was lucky, though. I have all seven Chaos Emeralds that I keep on me at all times, which may be risky considering Dark's power. They really help speed up my healing. I was already well enough to walk around, and the scar Dark left on my side will disappear within a week or so.

**(I think of a week on Mobius as 5 days. I consider time differences when comparing Earth to his planet, because no planet is alike. There's bound to be some time differences. For example, I imagine a minute as 100 seconds, an hour as 100 minutes, but each second is about the length of half a second on Earth. I'm too lazy to figure out the math behind the 6 years on Earth = 6 months on Mobius thing specified in Sonic X, but oh well. I suppose minutes, seconds, hours, etc., would be longer on Mobius than on Earth…*nerd*)**

"C'mon," I said after a long silence. "Let's head home." Without waiting, I ran ahead and back to my house.

While I had been healing in bed, I had considered using all three of the Light Stones combined with the powers of the Chaos Emeralds as a way to stop Dark. Luckily, Sal grabbed the first Stone before we left the caves. I just hoped the power of the Stones and Emeralds wouldn't get corrupted by Dark's power.

I got home minutes later and sat down to read one of the many research books and articles Sally had brought me while in bed. I never did much reading; I never got the time. But this was important enough to research. While looking through a book entitled _World of Power,_ I felt a twinge of a headache. It was Dark, letting me know he was there. I growled, annoyed.

_"Do you really have to do that?" _I asked him in my thoughts.

Dark shrugged. "_Just thought you should know."_

_ "I can feel your presence, it's not that difficult," _I thought.

He simply rolled his eyes. _"Let a guy have some fun, will ya?"_

_ "No. Especially not you."_

_ "Aw, isn't that a little harsh, bro?" _he pouted.

I ignored him and went back to reading. However, it wasn't long before I got bored and turned on the TV. When I have nothing to do or none of my favorite shows are on, I'll watch the news for any Eggman complications. It's not hard to find some plan of his to go and foil. But lately, with him in jail, there wasn't much on other than the ruins of towns being rebuilt and people being deroboticized with the newly developed deroboticizer. Today, however, one of the top stories (other than Chemical Plant Zone being remade) made me do a double take.

"Sonic: Finally Broken?" the headline read.

"Young Freedom Fighter Miles 'Tails' Prower's funeral had a record-breaking turnout earlier this week," a reporter was saying. "Some of the most famous Freedom Fighters attended and the authorities brought Dr. Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik to see the aftermath of what he can do. One of the many guests there was the world-famous Sonic the Hedgehog. However, could the loss of his closest companion have affected him more than he let on? Check out this footage from the funeral."

A video with the words "amateur footage" in the corner played on the TV screen, showing when I had gone up to pay my respects to Tails. My tenseness was more obvious than I thought. I could hear people murmuring about how uneasy I looked in the background. The camera even zoomed in on my clenched fists. The video showed everything from my yelling at Eggman to me totally losing it. But it wasn't until I raced off in a darkening blue blur when people really started to panic.

The video cut back to the reporter woman.

"Not only did this happen, but witnesses say they saw Sonic allegedly trying to attack Dr. Eggman when he first arrived at the ceremony. Sonic had to be held back by the police to keep from hurting the doctor. What do we make of Mobius's hero's strange behavior? Behaviorist experts say it might be that the grief he's suffered may have finally caused him to go insane. Others say he's turned into a new kind of evil. We cannot confirm either of these rumors, however, and will try to get information as soon as possible.

"In a related story, Freedom Fighter leader Sally Acorn and Amy Rose were seen riding hover scooters three days ago, carrying an unfamiliar-looking hedgehog. Witnesses say the dark blue hedgehog was unconscious and had a large gash in his side, which was bleeding heavily. Some sources claim that this was indeed the 'hero of Mobius,' Sonic, in his dark form, which he transforms into when he gets angry. Does this have any connection to his breakdown at the funeral? We hope to have information over the next few days on Sonic's condition and what may be going on. In other news, we turn to Suzie Frost to give us the scoop on the partnership between rivals Nintendo and SEGA…

I froze, stunned that the press had gotten hold of my situation, but they'd always been nipping at my tail. But even so, after only a couple days of this, they already knew about it. It could become a problem I didn't want to face.

Finally, Sally and Amy arrived.

"What took you so long?" I asked, shaking myself out of my trance.

"Sorry, but we're not the fastest thing alive," Amy said, rolling her eyes.

I smirked a little, but that faded quickly. "You should've seen the news," I said. "The press found out about me."

"Do they know what's going on?" Sally asked.

"Of course not," I rolled my eyes. "No one but us three knows." I realized I had wanted to say "us three and Tails," since he always knew what was going on with me. I felt a twinge of guilt and grief, but I tried to ignore it.

Sally frowned. "We should try and find out more about the Light Stones," she said, changing the subject.

"I've been looking through these books you lent me," I said. "There's nothing in here other than what we already know. Wait, there was one thing. In a news article from Day 27, it said there was a strange glowing stone given to our military. They analyzed it, and gave it to someone to hold on to while they saved it for a later use."

"Do you know who they gave it to?" Amy asked.

"In order to keep the stone safe, it didn't say," I said. "But I guess we could talk to the G.U.N. general to find out, right?"

"Yeah," Sally said. "We should do that. But G.U.N. Headquarters is all the way out in the human regions. Are you sure you can run that far in your condition?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Who said I'm coming?"

"Sonic, you have to come!" Amy said. "It's your story!"

I gave her a look that said to shut up before the fourth wall broke.

"But seriously, you're the only one that knows exactly what's going on and why you need it," Sally said. "We can't explain it, plus you tend to get your way more often than we do."

"Yeah, but the commander doesn't like me very much," I pointed out.

"True, but I have a feeling he'll listen to all three of us," Amy said. "And if he doesn't…" She took out her hammer and put it over her shoulder, smiling about as innocent as she could with a giant mallet in her hands.

I sighed. "Alright…" I finally gave in.

"But let's try to keep the violence to a minimum," Sally said. "We don't want to be blamed for assassinating one of the leading military powers."

Amy just rolled her eyes and put her hammer away.

"Let's head out," I said and stretched, but grimaced as the movement put strain on my side.

Sally looked concerned, but I knew she couldn't tell me to stay home. She needed me for this. So she simply said, "Take it easy, Sonic."

* * *

Almost an hour later, we reached the military base. The base was several towns over from where I lived, and those towns weren't small. With my injury slowing me down, it took a lot longer to get there than I was used to. By the time we got there, I was irritated, in pain, and ticked off at just about everything. Already I could tell this visit wasn't going to be pleasant.

The three of us went inside. The lobby looked about as severe as a military lobby could get. The walls were the color of steel and the floor was ebony. Pillars, the same color as the floor, supported the ceiling, standing about 20 feet apart on either side of the way to the front desk. Between the pillars and along the walls stood 10-foot-tall bronze statues of leading military officials who had died in combat. All stood at attention and stared down at us with a stony glare. They gave me the creeps as we walked toward the desk. A human man dressed in a military uniform was leaning back on the chair, his feet up on the desk. Beneath his military hat, he had reddish-brown hair and a scar that reached down from under his hat to the edge of his right eye. The sign on his desk read "Lt. Mark 'Rogue' Anderson." As we approached, he tilted his sunglasses down on his crooked nose, which looked like it had been broken at least once, and looked at us.

"Can I help you?" he said gruffly.

Sally squeaked shyly, so I spoke up. "We're here to see General Abraham Tower."

"Do ya have an appointment?" Lt. Anderson asked, sounding bored.

"No, but it's important," I said.

"No appointment, no visit," the lieutenant said. "Comeback when you've made one."

Sally cleared her throat and worked up the courage to step in. "As leader of the Freedom Fighters, I demand to be let in to see the general."

Lt. Anderson raised an eyebrow. "Whatever," he said. "Fourth floor, hall C, second door on the right."

We used the elevator to get to the fourth floor. It took us several minutes to find the command center, but soon we were knocking on the door.

"Come in," a deep voice said. We did. We were standing in a small room with two out of the four walls made of glass. On one wall was a staircase that led to the command room below, which the windows looked out on. The wall surrounding the staircase was almost completely covered in medals and plaques. General Abraham Tower stood with his back to us, looking out over the command room.

"Um…sir?" Amy asked.

"Yes, what is it?" he said, turning around. Immediately, he glared at me.

I got right to the point. "We're looking for something we believe you once had earlier this year. A glowing orange stone."

"Ah, I may have come across one," he said, raising a white eyebrow. "What do you want with it, hedgehog?"

"We need it for something. It could be life or death for this planet."

"How so?"

I sighed. "I'd prefer it if I kept it to myself."

"Then you don't need the stone."

I took a deep breath and tried to keep calm. "Fine. I'll tell you." Then I launched into the story of what's been going on.

When I finished, my head was pounding and my fists were clenched. Dark hadn't liked me telling General Tower about my problems with him, and I found it hard to keep him in line. The general was nodding along with what I was saying. I could only pray to Chaos that he would listen to me.

After a long silence, he spoke. "I understand, but unfortunately, I don't have the Stone. I suggest you talk to Colonel Higgins. I gave it to him. Hopefully he still has it."

"Where can we find him?" Sally asked.

"Right now he's in a meeting, but that ends in about ten minutes. If you guys wanna wait, I can let him know you want to talk to him."

Sally nodded. "Yes, thank you." Then she and Amy led me out of the room. Once the door closed behind us, I grit my teeth and put a hand to my head.

"Do you need a minute?" Amy asked me.

"Yeah," I managed to say before fighting Dark's control became my only priority. Vaguely, I remembered the two of them leading me out an emergency exit (after Sally asked Nicole to temporarily disable the alarm systems while they snuck me out) and into a dark alleyway. Once there, I fell to my knees, clutched my head, and tried not to scream.

**(This chapter was WAY longer than I planned. I was going to include talking to the Colonel in this chapter, but I think I'm going to split it. I promise to update more often! I've just been so distracted, busy, and brain-dead to write. But now I'm out of my writer's block thing. I'm so happy to get this chapter done! Sorry if it was boring. Did you all like the little writing trick I tried at the beginning? I got that from a book I read earlier this year (****_Fated_****) that made me think the main character actually died, so it was my goal to do that in this. Hope you all liked please review, follow and favorite, and stay tuned for the next chapter, hopefully coming tomorrow!)**

** ~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	9. Chapter 9 - The Light of Hope

**(So. Bored. I have nothing to do. I'M GOING OFF THE RAILS ON A CRAZY TRAIN! No. I'm not. Pandora lies.**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**** (I really need to change this story's title…Review on suggestions!)**

** After visiting Tails's grave, Sally, Amy, and an injured Sonic continue to research the elusive Light Stones. Unfortunately, it seems the press has found out something is amiss in Mobius's recent peace, and Sonic hopes it won't cause too much of a problem for him. Luckily, the research has paid off; and the trio finds themselves at G.U.N.'s headquarters pursuing a lead. However, Sonic is forced to retell everything since the battle with Eggman to General Tower just to get his hands on the Stone, which pushes him to his breaking point. To make matters worse, General Tower gave the Stone to someone else, which may mean Sonic has to go through the same torture of telling his story over again. Will they succeed in finding the second Light Stone? Will the same brutal battle that proceeded in finding the first Stone occur again? How long can Sonic hold on? Read on to find out, or go back to Chapter 8 – Healing to read more about the last chapter.)**

_"Come with me,"_ Dark hissed in my mind. _"Give in to the darkness…"_

_ "NO!" _I shouted at him. _"You can't win, you soulless imposture!"_

We were both weakened, yet strong in our minds. Dark had enough power to give me a hard time, but I could fend him off. After a good fifteen minutes of fighting for control, Dark finally gave up for the time being. My whole body relaxed and I sighed with relief.

"You okay?" Sally asked. She and Amy had stood by the entire time to keep a lookout for people who might disrupt us.

"Yeah," I said, breathing hard. "Just fine." I stood, grimacing. "Let's go."

The girls looked at me, concerned, and we left the alleyway and went back inside.

We headed back to the lobby, where we found the man we were looking for leaning against one of the pillars. Colonel Higgins was less severe-looking than most of the other soldiers, despite having an eye-patch over one eye. His one good eye looked kind and was a bright blue. He had dark skin and short, messy black hair that stuck up at all angles. He was young too, hardly old enough to even be in the military, let alone a colonel. He wore a military uniform with a number of badges pinned to it. He also had his ears pierced, with one small gold ring through each one. When he saw us, he straightened and smiled.

"You must be the three I was told to talk to," Colonel Higgins said. "General Tower told me all about your little problem…" He looked at me. "…but I suppose it's not that little, is it?"

I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders when he said he knew what was going on. I wouldn't have to tell him, and Dark didn't have a reason to get upset. I smiled a little.

"You guys like adventure, right?" the colonel asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"Well, maybe you can help me then. I do have the Light Stone, but I buried it to keep it safe. The general doubted its power, but I knew it had more than he knew. So I hid it."

"Do you remember where?" Sally asked.

"Somewhere in Knothole Village," he replied. "In the ruins of the main headquarters."

"Smart," I said.

"So if you wanna come and help me find it, that'd be great," he said.

"Definitely!" Amy chipped in. "Thanks for letting us use it!"

"No problem," Higgins said. "Think I could get it back when you're through with it?"

"Possibly, but no promises," I said with a smirk. "Things tend to get destroyed in my possession."

Sally rolled her eyes.

"I know the feeling," the colonel chuckled.

"So what are we waiting for?" Amy asked. "Let's go!"

"Hold it," I said. "Do you really think I should be going? After what happened last time?"

"You don't have to actually look for it," Sally said. "But you can watch."

I nodded. "Sure. See you there." Without warning, I raced off toward the ruins of what used to be my home.

Minutes later, we were all standing in the dust and rubble of the headquarters. Well, Sally, Amy, and Colonel Higgins were. I was sitting in a tree, lying against the tree trunk, hands behind my head. Despite looking relaxed, a lot was going on in my mind. An argument had broken out between me and Dark over Eggman. I couldn't tell you who was winning. I waited for hours while they searched and eventually got impatient.

"Do you guys want me to help?" I called down from my tree.

"No, we got it," Sally said.

"We've been searching almost all day!" Amy cried. "I don't think it's here."

I sighed and climbed down from the tree. "Stand back," I said. The three of them stepped off the ruins. I started running around the ash and rubble-covered ground, the wind whipping up the debris into a tornado-like cloud. Pain shot through my side and I grimaced, but I pushed myself until the pain was unbearable.

"Stop, Sonic!" Sally cried. "I see it!"

I skidded to a stop, fell to my knees, and clutched my side, breathing hard. Amy rushed to my aid while Sally walked through the dust towards the glowing orange Stone, with sat atop the old, torn Freedom Fighter flag.

"Don't touch it!" I cried, remembering something I read in a book about it. But it was too late. As soon as Sally picked it up, there was a flash of light. We all turned away from it and shielded our eyes. An arrow of light shot out of the Stone and pierced me like a dagger, but I felt no pain. Instead, the same black smoke that had appeared when we found the first Stone seeped out where the light had hit me. I cried out, the smoke leaving a burning sensation throughout my entire body.

The book I read hand said that the Light Stones would locate the source of evil as long as it was within a 300-yard radius. The most evil thing here was inside of me, so it targeted me and was ready to draw out the evil.

"Get out of here!" I shouted. "All of you! Go!"

The colonel, Sally, and Amy reluctantly retreated. A few feet away from me, the smoke materialized into Dark, and I changed back to normal. Dark looked weaker, with his side stained black with his dried blood. This fight wasn't going to take long, considering what shape the both of us were in.

I stood, wincing. "I'm not fighting you again. I mean, it's obvious neither of us are going to get very far."

Dark glared at me. "Well, it's not like I had a choice," he snapped. "But I still have more power than you." He put his hand out in front of me and sent another of his dark energy blasts at me. I easily stepped out of the way and it hit a dead tree behind me.

"Is that all you can do?" I taunted. "Pathetic."

"It's better than what you can do," Dark sneered.

"Last time I checked, I wasn't the one beaten up by a girl," I smirked.

Dark growled and lunged at me, but I avoided him by taking two steps to the side and he ran into a tree. He cried out – if it was in frustration or in pain, I couldn't tell – and spun around to face me, staring daggers at me.

"Amy, I'm getting sick of this guy," I said. "Mind beating his head in like you did last time?"

"My pleasure!" Amy said, stepping out from behind a tree, her giant mallet raised. Dark stumbled backwards but tripped over a slab of concrete and fell. Amy started pounding him like he was a giant nail that wouldn't go into a block of wood. I could almost feel his pain, but it was too funny to pity him. Only a few seconds after she started, Dark obviously had enough because he changed back into his smoky self and went back into my body. For some reason it hurt less when he re-entered, but I knew nothing had changed because I changed back into my Dark form. I looked at my darkened skin and the aura around my hands and groaned.

"Don't worry," Sally said, stepping cautiously out into the open. "We'll find a way to rid you of him."

"What – _who – _was that?" Colonel Higgins asked, also rejoining us. I'd almost forgotten he was there.

"That," I said, "is the entire reason we need these Stones."

The colonel nodded in understanding as Sally pocketed the second Light Stone, which was now only faintly glowing.

"I don't suppose you know where the last Light Stone is, do you?" I asked Higgins.

He shook his head. "Nope, sorry."

"Man," I said, shot. "And I was hoping it'd be easy."

**(Okay. I'm done. I had to end it there so I could post it today. So I REALLY need ideas, because I'm running out of them. A fan by the name of aquayzar777 suggested **POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT** Tails Doll owning the last stone, and I would like to incorporate it but am finding it hard to come up with a plan for it. So I want to know your thoughts on it and your ideas. ALL IDEAS WILL BE CREDITED!**

** Okay, so…read, review, favorite, and follow I guess! RRF&F. Stay tuned for Chapter 10, which I probably won't be able to post tomorrow because I go to my grandparents' on Thursdays for most of the day, soooo…yeah. Hope you all enjoyed this! Not the most exciting chapter, because I couldn't find time to incorporate my original idea into it, but oh well.**

**Goodbye, all you random readers!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	10. Chapter 10 - Lost Memories

**(OH MY CHAOS I LOVE YOU GUYS. Not only do I have some awesome material provided by two awesome people, I'm no longer brain dead! Credit will be given once the ideas have been completely incorporated in the story. This story is about to get SO MUCH DARKER AND SCARIER I JUST LOVE IT.**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_****(Thinking of changing the name to ****_Overtaken,_**** credit aquayzar777, but I'm just too lazy to change all the chapters….Your thoughts?)**

******Sally, Amy, and Sonic have successfully found the second Light Stone without much trouble from Dark. Things seem to be looking up for the group. But that's all about to change. Go back and read Chapter 9 – The Light of Hope for details on their discovery, or read on to see where exactly the final Stone is hidden.)**

Several unexciting days passed.

Sally was working with scientists who work for the Freedom Fighters to analyze the Stones and discover their true power. Amy stayed at my house, keeping me company and warding off the reporters that now flocked my house while I struggled with Dark and finding out where the third and final Light Stone was. The research articles and books yielded nothing after three times of reading through. So I spent my time trying to relax and trying not to fall asleep, which would give Dark leeway on controlling me. By this time, despite being a usual insomniac, I was exhausted. Dark was going to kill me of exhaustion if this goes on for much longer.

Finally, three days after finding the second Stone, Sally, Amy and I met up at the local library.

"Any luck?" Sally asked me.

"Nah," I grumbled, slumping on the table, running a hand through my messy, upraised quills. "You?"

"Not really, other than these Stones are nothing but power," Sal said. "If these don't do _something_ for you, I don't know what will."

I groaned and covered my head with my arms. "I don't know how long I can keep this up…"

"Don't worry," Amy said, patting my shoulder. "We're so close I can almost feel it!"

I tilted my head up so just my eyes were visible above my arms. "I hate to say it, but maybe we should talk to Eggman again," I mumbled. "He helped us out last time; maybe it'll do us some good."

"It can't hurt," Sally said. "Well, maybe it'll hurt _you,_ but…"

"I think I might be able to handle it this time. I can actually think about him without wanting to blow him up. Besides, it wasn't _that_ bad last time."

"You attacked him," Sally reminded me.

"It was small! He had it coming!"

Sally sighed in exasperation. "Fine, but please don't attack him or blast him or whatever."

"No guarantees."

So together we stood up and headed towards the prison where Eggman was being kept.

The guards at the gate didn't question us when we approached. After telling them what we were there to do, we were admitted. Like last time, the elevator took us down deep into the ground and into the prison. A guard led us to Eggman's cell, which hadn't changed. We went inside and the guard stood outside the door. Eggman seemed to be the only thing that had changed.

His bushy mustache seemed to have grown a bit and his eyes behind his sunglasses were bloodshot. His orange prison suit was stained with dirt and he had a bandage around his arm where I had shot him. But he was still chained inside his cage and looked miserable. I felt my body tense when I looked at him. He looked up and glared at us.

"What do you want?" he grumbled.

"We have some questions to ask you," Sally began. "And we expect you to answer."

"Hmph, no promises," he said.

"First," Sally said, ignoring his comment, "have you ever heard of the Light Stones?"

Eggman hesitated. He must have decided the answer wouldn't benefit us, because he said, "Yes, but I never found a use for them."

"Have you ever searched for them?" Sally asked.

"Yes, to analyze them during my days known as Kintobor. I found one to use as a test subject, but it didn't last."

"What do you mean, it didn't last?"

"I started doing evil before we could find a use for it."

"Where did you find it?"

Eggman smirked. "That, I'll never tell."

I stepped in. "And why not?"

"Isn't it obvious? An answer like that could help you in your quest, assuming that's what you're looking for," he said. "I enjoy watching you struggle."

"The only time you get to see me is when we do something like _this,_" I snapped. "So what are you talking about, old man?"

Eggman's smirked widened. He snapped his fingers. "Dark, give Daddy a little show."

In an instant, fierce pain shot through my entire body and Dark attacked. I screamed and fell to my knees, clutching my head. He was battling with a majority of his strength, and it was agonizing. Not only that, but Dark was taunting me, messing with my mind and bringing up memories of good times with Tails and occasionally the bloody image of his death. I screamed, unable to ignore the memories or fight back. While they played back in my mind like a fast-moving slide show, Dark accidentally pulled up a memory that would aid us in our search.

_It was several years ago, after Tails and I had been searching for one of the Chaos Emeralds and found nothing. I was running home with Tails flying beside me when he stopped me._

_ "Sonic, hold up!" Tails said._

_ I skidded to a stop and looked up at him. "What is it, buddy?"_

_ "We may not have found the Emerald, but I did find something I wanted to show you," he said._

_ "Really? What is it?"_

_ Tails landed beside me and opened his closed fist. Inside it was a glowing orange Stone._

_ "What is it?" I asked._

_ "I think it's called a Light Stone," he replied. "I read a little about them a while back. They can lure the evil out of people possessed by it. I found this in a hollow tree."_

_ "Cool," I said, picking it up and observing it. "Think it could help in fighting Eggman?"_

_ "Maybe," Tails said. "I'll analyze it at my workshop."_

_ "Alright." I handed the Stone back to him. "Race you to the chili dog stand!" I sped off ahead of him. He coughed in the dust I stirred up, laughed, and flew after me._

I gasped and my eyes flew open. The attacks ebbed as Dark realized what he did. I looked up at Sally and Amy, who had both taken a step back to give me space.

"I know where the third Stone is," I said, breathless.

Eggman froze, eyes widening. "What did you—"

"Your plan failed again, Eggman," I said, standing. "Dark just helped us. So…" I wanted to gag. "Thanks. Your answers are no longer of use to us." Without another word, I raced down the hallway back towards the elevator, Sally and Amy running after me.

**(These chapters just keep getting shorter! Oh well, I'm pretty much cutting them in half so I can post them in one day and start working on the next. The part of the idea from readers is mostly credited to aquayzar777, with hints of it from a Guest under the name RobinsInTheSkye. The main part of RobinsInTheSkye's idea will come in the next chapter. This thing is going to start looking like a Creepy Pasta soon…Oh boy. Oh well, I'm excited.**

** RRF&F! :3 Stay tuned for the next chapter!)**

** ~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	11. Chapter 11 - Dark Alliances

**(Blaaaaahhhh.**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

******For days, Sally, Amy, and Sonic have had no luck on finding the third Stone, so they turned to Dr. Eggman, hoping for some clue on its whereabouts. They got their answer, but not in the way they expected; an attack by Dark stirred up troubling memories for Sonic. One of the memories just happened to be Tails talking to Sonic about the Light Stones. Now, with the lead they needed, the friends can complete their search. Little do they know a troubling surprise is waiting for them. Go back and read Chapter 10 – Lost Memories to learn more about what happened or keep reading to find out more about their adventure!)**

I hardly waited for Sally and Amy, I just ran straight to Tails's workshop, which was attached to his house. As I approached it, I could tell something was off. A flickering purple and black glow seemed to be coming from the upstairs windows. I decided to investigate. The front door was open slightly. I cautiously pushed it open the rest of the way and stepped inside.

"Hello?" I called into the dark house. A gust of wind blew past me, making the door slam shut. I cringed and shook my head.

The house was eerily quiet, but looked the same from when Tails was alive. I felt a pang of grief in my gut, knowing Tails will never see this place again.

_"No,"_ I thought. _"This is no time to grieve now. You have a Stone to find."_

_ "Or you could turn right around and go home," _Dark replied. I'd almost forgotten he could hear my thoughts. _"Why don't you get some rest?"_

I ignored him and walked through the house toward the stairs. I could hear the floorboards on the second floor creaking. I wasn't alone.

As I walked up the steps, I could tell something very evil was present here. Dark seemed to be getting stronger with each step I took, though in small amounts. I wondered if I should turn back, but I decided against it. I reached the top of the stairs and opened the door. The purple and black glow seemed to have increased. Warily, I stepped in the room. What I saw shocked me.

A wavering, swirling purple and black hole no larger than I was stood in the center of the room. In front of it, coaxing it like it was a fire, knelt a Tails-like figure, except it was too rounded and…toy-like. My breath caught.

"Y-you!" I cried.

His head slowly turned. His eyes were white with only black pupils, and something that looked like an antenna with a red jewel on the end dangled from his forehead. He looked like a harmless doll. But that didn't last. When he saw me, his eyes turned completely black with tiny, glowing red dots as pupils, and his mouth spread into an oversized, evil grin, full of sharp teeth dripping blood. Tails Doll.

"Looking for this?" Tails Doll asked in a scary, quiet voice. He held out his clawed hand which held a faintly glowing dark orange Stone. It was darker in color than the other two, and I took that as a bad sign.

"What are you doing?" I growled. "Get out of here! You don't belong in Tails's house!"

Tails Doll cackled. "You think so? You surprise me, Dark. You haven't taken control yet."

"I've been waiting for you," I said, but it wasn't my voice. It was Dark's. Immediately, my hands flew to my mouth. Tails Doll cackled again.

"So, hedgehog," he said. "Where are your friends?"

"They're—" I looked around and realized they weren't with me. I hadn't waited for them. I felt anger rise in me, and my aura flared. "What did you do with them?!" I shouted.

Tails Doll smirked and snapped his fingers. Dark immediately attempted to take control, using more power than he ever had but I knew there was something holding him back. I screamed and clutched my head, falling to my knees again. This time, it was almost too much. My back arched and I screamed at the ceiling, my eyes open and completely white. Wisps of black smoke flew from my body towards the strange black hole/portal thing, but it wasn't Dark this time. It was like my anger had turned into a type of gas and was now going into…no, _fueling_ the portal. It grew bigger and brighter and Tails Doll laughed maniacally.

Downstairs, I heard the front door open and two girls' voices calling my name. I stopped shouting and tried to break away or to calm down or _something,_ but I could do nothing. As the portal continued to grow, I felt like I was being pulled into it, like it was a vacuum. **(Originally typed "like it was a bathroom." O.O)**

Tails Doll laughed and stood. "So you want this Stone?" He held it up.

I opened one eye and glared at him, gritting my teeth.

He smirked and held his hand over his head, tilted his head back, opened his mouth, dropped the Stone into it, and swallowed.

"NO!" I cried. I could hear pounding footsteps on the stairs.

Tails Doll laughed and put one foot in the portal. "See you on the other side," he said, and disappeared into it. At the same time, I felt myself being dragged in and, finding it extremely hard to move, I couldn't stop myself. It was only when I was within inches of the portal when I could move freely, but the suction pulling me in was too much to overcome. By the time Sally and Amy got in the room, the lower part of my body was already inside it, the strands of smoke still attached to my body, trying to drag me in.

The girls wasted no time. Each of them grabbed one of my arms and attempted to pull me out. I tried to push myself out with my feet, but there was no foothold to push against. It was no use. **(Silver, stop writing my story!)** All three of us were dragged inside.

We all screamed. We tumbled through nothingness, seeing nothing but black. Seconds later, a light fast approached us and, when it was blinding, we landed on hard ground.

Once we were sure it was over, we all groaned. I sat up and quickly brushed off the invisible traces of the black smoke from my body. "That was so weird!"

Sally stood up and looked around. "Uh, Sonic?" she said. "I think you should see this."

I stood and looked around as well.

We were standing on a hill that overlooked the landscape. The sky was black and overcast with clouds the color of smoke, wicked-looking birds flying through it. There were no stars, no moon, and no sun. The bloodstained ground was littered with old bones, dead plants, and dead bodies. A lake near the base of the hill was blood-red. On the horizon sat a city, but it was ablaze and in ruins. Perhaps the scariest of all was the voices that whispered all around us.

_"Can you feel the sunshine?"_

_ "Where is your God now?"_

_ "I am god!"_

They sent shivers down my spine. The atmosphere of the place was filled with fear, depression, anger, and madness. Dark seemed to be soaking it all in, welcoming it. I didn't like it one bit. It was like we had entered an entirely new dimension, which I suspected is what happened. An old, rotting wood sign stood crooked on its post on the hilltop, a crow with a skull for a head sitting on top of it. The sign read in dripping, red letters;

_"Welcome to Exe."_

The line below it, written in smaller letters, said;

_"Prepare to die."_

"I-I don't like this, Sonic," Amy stuttered, seeming to cower a little in her boots. "I wanna go home."

"Unfortunately, I don't think that's an option," I said. "At least, not yet."

Sally looked at me. "What happened back there? Did you find the Stone?"

"Yeah, I found it," I said. "But I can't get it."

"Why not?"

"Tails Doll had it. And he swallowed it."

Sally gasped, then frowned. "That…complicates things."

"Not only that, but the next time Dark decides to attack me, I don't think I'll be able to hold him off. He loves this place."

"What was happening to you back there?" Amy asked me, frowning.

I didn't look at either of them. "That portal was weak when I got there. TD found a way to anger me and used my rage to fuel it. Then we got sucked in."

Amy frowned. "Is there a way to get back?"

I looked up at the sky where we had seemingly dropped out of, but it was as dreary as the rest of the place. "We could use Chaos Control to open a portal, but I have a feeling it's not going to work like that here. We're in entirely different dimension. Things are bound to be different."

"So what do we do?"

"Easy," I said. "We find Tails Doll, rip him open, take the Stone, and get the heck out of here."

Sally cringed at my choice of words. "So I guess we'll find him…"

I pointed across the vast field of bones and blood ahead of us to the burning city. "There. Let's go." I started down the hill, quickly followed by Sally, then Amy, and began our journey through Exe, the disturbing world of Creepy Pasta.

**(I actually finished this the same day as the last chapter, and I started it several hours after posting the last one, but I was too distracted watching Star Wars II to proofread it, so I'm posting it this morning…or afternoon or evening, depending on where you are.**

** This idea and pretty much the whole chapter is credit to Guest reviewer RobinsInTheSkye, but the whole having Tails Doll have the Stone thing was originally aquayzer777's idea and was added onto by RobinsInTheSkye. Hope you all like this. I know it's getting more and more grotesque, but hey, it's my story. You don't like it, stop reading and DON'T find out what happens and if they get out of Exe. So PLEASE review, follow, favorite, eat bananas, whatever you want to do. Stay tuned for more!**

** Nerdy girl out. Peace!)**

** ~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	12. Chapter 12 - A New World

**(The other day I went to a Skillet concert. It was so awesome! What's your favorite band?**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

** The quest to find the last Light Stone seems to have led Sonic to a dead end. The worst person possible has the Light Stone, having taken it from the deceased Tails's workshop. Not only that, but it's inside of them, having been swallowed to prevent others from getting it. Sonic, Sally, and Amy must track down the thief, Tails Doll, in another dimension which they accidentally got sucked into. Will the perils of this new world be the death of them? Or will they succeed in getting back the Light Stone, creating a portal, and using the Light Stones to rid Sonic of his cursed Dark form? Read on for answers, or go back to Chapter 11 – Dark Alliances to find out just how exactly they wound up here.)**

Sally, Amy and I walked across the barren and grotesque landscape, careful not to step in puddles of blood or on the carcasses of people and animals. I could have run ahead and gotten to the city in seconds, but I didn't dare leave them behind. The entire walk, I felt chills – and it takes a lot to make me cold – and the feeling that we were being watched. However, after what felt like hours of walking, we were no closer to the city. It was like the land was playing tricks on us and keeping us in almost the exact same spot, even though we were walking. Eventually, I gave up.

"C'mon," I said, and scooped them up so I was holding one of them in each arm and raced off, creating a sonic boom that sent vultures and crows flying.

Finally we were making some progress. The city slowly crept up on us, and soon I was running in the smoke-choked city. As we traveled into the heart of the city, I could see more and more blood staining the concrete, buildings, and windows. What was lying in the streets was too disgusting to describe. Every now and then a shadow would quickly pass us, but whoever the shadow belonged to didn't disturb us. After a while I just stopped looking over my shoulder and kept moving.

One building rose higher above the rest, its top hidden in the clouds, lightning striking the sides. I figured that building was their castle. Who "they" were, I didn't wanna know. That, I guessed, would be where Tails Doll would be heading. I didn't like the thought of having to confront him up close. I've read about what he can do to people. If everyone here was like him, or worse, this dimension was beyond dangerous.

**(I just read some of the Tails Doll Creepy Pastas. Honestly, not as scary as I thought. The one I read about Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony was scarier. But I will never play Sonic R.)**

Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something that _wasn't_ a shadow move. When I looked, I saw the tip of one of TD's tails disappear down an alley. Without hesitating, I followed him.

"Sonic, what are you doing?" Sally asked in a hushed voice.

"I saw him go down here," I said. "Trust me."

Tails Doll flew just ahead of us to the end of the alley, and then turned right. When I turned in the same direction to follow him, he was nowhere in sight. I swore under my breath and decided to just go to the tallest building. After a few minutes, I stopped at the base of the building and looked up.

"Are you sure you wanna go in there?" Amy asked.

"Yes," I said, and went inside.

The main lobby was completely dark. I could make out shadows moving around swiftly, but no bodies to go with them. The carpet was so stained with blood you could hardly tell the actual color. Directly in front of us stood an elevator. There were no stairs.

Cautiously, I set the girls down and walked towards the elevator. The doors slid open without me having to press a button to call it. Hesitantly, I stepped inside and the girls followed. There was only one button on the panel; a button with a bloodstained fingerprint on it, reading the number _666._ I pressed it, wondering where it would take us. Immediately, the elevator doors slammed shut and it shot, not upwards, but downwards.

The ride seemed to go on for an eternity. As we traveled deeper and deeper into the earth, the lights flickered out. Sally and Amy squeaked in fear. A minute after that, I heard a small grating noise and the _tha-thump_ of feet landing on the floor.

"Amy," I whispered.

"Yeah?" she answered in the darkness.

"Get out your hammer. We have company."

Suddenly, one small red light appeared in front of us. A moment later, hundreds of smaller red lights blinked on around us. The larger light moved toward us while the others stayed stationary. I felt Amy push me aside and she swung at the creature. It flew back and hit the elevator wall, and right then the other red lights advanced. Amy kept swinging, and Sally and I tried fighting them off with our hands and feet, but it's hard to hit an opponent you can hardly see. I could feel the strange creatures crawling on me, and small but piercing spots of pain near where they crawled, so I guessed I was either being bitten or scratched. I could hear Sally and Amy tiring, and I could tell they were in pain. Then I did something that could risk my sanity.

For a split second, in my mind, I let down my guard keeping Dark at bay and channeled the anger he released. In a powerful blast that came from my entire body and a shout of anger, the creatures were blasted off of us and onto the walls. I heard several _splat_s, telling me my blast was more powerful than I thought. Unfortunately, it had almost been too much, and I crumpled to my knees, a hand to my forehead. Just then, the elevator stopped suddenly and the lights flickered back on. All around us, tiny, spindly black bodies lay around us. They had four arms and two legs, sharp teeth all around a circular mouth and long, sharp claws. They also had small, beady red eyes. There was an extra-large one crawling out of a hatch in the ceiling. Sally, Amy, and I, I noticed, all had small circles of blood on our arms and legs and long, red scratches with blood just coming to the surface of our skin, staining our fur. Sally grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet. After a minute, the elevator doors slid open with a screech and the three of us stumbled out, stepping over the small bodies that spilled into the room.

The room was unlike any I had ever seen. It was dark except for torches flickering on the stone, bloodstained walls. A path of onyx reflecting the firelight led up to what looked like an alter. On either side of the path were pools of blood…literally. Small fountains of crimson flowed out of the walls in between and beneath the torches and into the pools. On the alter sat a throne that, as I realized after a moment, was made out of bones; humerus bones made up the arm rests, femurs made up the legs of the chair, and skulls made up the top of the backrest. Seated in the throne was…me?

No, it wasn't me. This guy looked very much like me; same blue quills, same red sneakers. However, there were some very large differences. For one, his eyes were completely black with glowing red pupils. Two, his eyes were bleeding. Three, his mouth stretched far too wide, and when he grinned when we came in, I saw yellowing, sharp teeth coated in blood. Standing next to him, or rather floating, was Tails Doll.

"Welcome," he said in what was a very strange version of my voice…quieter, creepier somehow. "I am Sonic Exe. The king of this world."

"And I didn't ask," I snapped.

"Ah, a temper," Sonic Exe said. "I like that from you. Tell me. Do you want to play hide and seek?"

"Play, play with us!" Tails Doll cried.

I cringed and took a step back. "Not on your life," I scowled.

"Well, you're in luck," Sonic Exe said. "I need you, Sonic the Hedgehog, but not your friends."

"You touch them and so help me…" I said through my teeth.

"Well then…I might just have to force you to play," Sonic Exe said. Then, he snapped his fingers. Out of the pools rose strange, zombie-like creatures, with dirty bodies, missing limbs, blood-covered torn clothes, bleeding black eyes with red pupils and uncharacteristically sharp teeth and claws. A low moan rose from each of them as they advanced.

"Entertain me, my Exes," Sonic Exe smirked. Tails Doll seemed ecstatic.

"Can I play, master?" he asked.

"Not yet," Sonic Exe said to the doll. "You are carrying something of too much value. You must wait."

"Aw…" Tails Doll seemed to pout.

While they were conversing, the zombie-Exes had advanced much quicker than before, and were now attacking, slashing and snapping at us. Sally, Amy and I fought them off in our usual way, with fists, kicks, and a giant hammer. I watched as Amy got bit by one of the Exes, and after the bite she moved more sluggishly, and after a couple of minutes, crumpled to the floor, unconscious. I struggled to keep my anger in check.

"Stay with me, Sal," I murmured, fighting back-to-back with her.

"I'll try…" she said. Not long after she said that, I heard her yelp. I turned around and ripped an Exe from her arm. I swore under my breath.

"I'm…fine," she said, but I could already tell that whatever made Amy fall…poison? – was taking hold of her too. I took her hand and squeezed it to reassure her and kept fighting. It wasn't too long until I felt her fall behind me and her hand go limp in mine. I dropped it and kept fighting to distract myself from the anger boiling inside me. But no matter how many zombie/Exe corpses fell around me, more just kept coming. I was alone in fighting them. Just when I thought fewer were rising from the blood pool than before, a sharp pain raced through my shoulder. I cried out and wrenched an Exe from my arm, blood staining my fur. Immediately, the poison in the Exe's teeth started to take effect. My limbs felt like they were being turned to lead, and I had double-vision. I found it very hard to hit my target.

More zombie/Exes came upon me as I was weakened further. Just when I thought I wasn't going to be able to fight them all, that it was all over for me, I heard their leader, Sonic Exe, call them off. I watched them go back into the blood pools and, as I did, I fell to my knees, then to the side, and, unable to get up, my eyes closed.

**(Da end. XD Just kidding, there's more to the story. What did you think? Creepy? Weird? Awesome? Stay tuned for the next chapter to see WHAT IN THE HECK IS HAPPENING. Ugh…Just when I think I've finished I realize I have to proofread. This'll be fun.**

**As my reviewers have said, WARNING; Small children, do not read this at night! XD I love that.**

**Again. Credit to RobinsInTheSkye for the idea. Do I really need to say that every chapter now?**

**If you're awesome, Read, Review, Follow and Favorite to prove it! Last person to review gets an A/N shout-out! *troll face***

**Byyyye my lovely monkeys!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	13. Chapter 13 - Recipe for Disaster

**(Blarg. It's storming pretty badly, so I'm barricaded in my basement.**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

** Sonic, Amy, and Sally have entered the dimension of Exe, a realm full of death, destruction, and fear. They are chasing down the last of the three Light Stones, which was taken by the demon toy, Tails Doll. Upon confronting the thief and meeting the world's king, Sonic Exe, an attack was ordered on the three friends, making them drop one by one. Did they survive the encounter? Does Sonic Exe have a plan for these three? Read on for more info, or go back to Chapter 12 – A New World for more details on this gruesome dimension.)**

I woke from a brutal attack from Dark. I tried to move, but found that I couldn't. My whole body ached. I opened my eyes and found that my wrists, torso, and ankles were strapped to a cold metal table and covered with the bites and scratches from the creatures I've encountered. Above me, a bright lamp shined in my eyes. I looked around frantically, trying to remember where I was, and how I got there. After a minute, I felt the table being tilted up. Standing with a remote in front of me was Sonic Exe.

"You've held on long, my friend," he said. "I'd expect you to have been corrupted by now."

Sweat formed on my forehead. I clenched my teeth, trying to concentrate on fighting Dark and talking to Sonic Exe. "Where…are my friends?" I asked.

"Hm? Oh, Tails Doll is playing with them. They won't survive." Sonic Exe pressed a button on his remote and a TV in front of me flashed on, and through a mess of static I could see Sally and Amy huddled together in a room, Tails Doll advancing on them. He had something sharp in his hand.

"No…" I grunted. I pulled against the bindings on my wrists. My strained voice turned into a yell. "Leave them alone!"

Sonic Exe ignored my plea. "Do you know what will happen if you lose control?"

I just glared at him.

"You will release the Exe dimension into your world, and create the ultimate future. You and I will rule together. Wouldn't that be great?"

"No, it'd be horrible," I hissed. "Dark wouldn't want to rule with you anyway. He'd kill you first."

"Au contraire, my friend," he said. "This deal was made a long time ago. He wouldn't betray _us,_ the Exes. We'd destroy him."

I growled. "What do you mean, a long time ago? I was turned into this less than two weeks ago!"

"Haven't you wondered where he came from?"

"No, and I don't really care."

He ignored me. "He lived here as my right-hand man. We had made this plan months ago to screw you, our alter ego, and were waiting for the right time. Luckily, Eggman gave us that."

I growled again.

"Perhaps I'll allow you to go back to your dimension with the Light Stone," Sonic Exe said. "That is, if you can survive." His smile stretched across his face and he pressed a button on the remote. The straps released me and a trap door opened below me. Before I could stop myself, I fell through.

I landed hard on dusty ground. I saw Sally and Amy standing nearby. Right in front of me stood Tails Doll, holding a knife.

"Let's play," Tails Doll was saying. "Play with me…"

I stood, though slightly shakily. Dark had backed off…somewhat. "You wanna play? Let's play," I said.

"Sonic, don't!" Sally cried. But she was too late. I lunged at Tails Doll at super-sonic speed and pinned him against the wall. He grinned.

"Hello," he said. "Let's play a game. How about tag? You're it." At the word "it," he dragged the knife blade along my the back of my arm. I cried out and dropped him, clutching my arm, blood staining my gloves and the dust under my feet. I looked down to where I dropped him, but he wasn't there.

"Sonic, look out!" Amy cried.

I whirled around just as Tails Doll was about to bring the blade down on my back. I jumped to the side and the knife sliced the air. TD looked at me curiously.

"Aw," he said. "You broke the rules of the game. Maybe I should change them." He then flew towards me and I backed into the wall. He was about to swing the blade down at my chest, but I grabbed his wrist and wrenched it aside, working my fingers in the seams that attached his hand to his arm. The strain on my arm made pain spike through the cut he made and I grit my teeth. With his other hand, Tails Doll grabbed my throat, pinning me against the wall. I struggled to breathe but tightened my grip on his arm. At the same time he tightened his grip on my neck. I grabbed his other arm near where it was sewn to his body and jerked my arm back, ripping his arm clear from his body. But though it was detached from his body, the grip on my neck didn't loosen. I started to feel dizzy from the lack of air and pried his stuffed fingers from my throat. Only then did his arm fall limp at my feet, blood-covered stuffing spilling out.

"You tagged me," he said as I gasped for air. "I'm it." He wrenched himself out of my grip. However, I had ruined the seams on his wrist, and he dropped the knife.

"Hey, no tag-backs," Tails Doll hissed. He lunged at me and bit down on my arm, his teeth sinking into the gash he already made. I screamed in pain, my vision going black at the edges, and tried to wrench him off. With a sickening _rrrrrip,_ his body was torn from his head, but he wouldn't die. I fell to my knees, weak from the pain. Then I realized it.

_"Of course," _I thought. I wrapped my fist around the gem that dangled from his forehead. For the first time, TD's eyes widened in fear, and I knew I had it right. I wrenched my arm back and tore the antenna from his forehead. I dropped the gem by my foot and stomped on it, crushing it to pieces. The glow in Tails Doll's eyes faded and his grip on my arm loosened. I tossed his head off of me and sunk completely to the floor, cradling my arm and sweating from the pain. Sally pounced on Tails Doll's body and tore open his chest. She threw the blood-stained stuffing around and, after a few minutes, stepped back, her fist clenched around the Stone to keep its power from activating too soon.

I smiled a little. "Great job."

Sally smiled back. Just then, screens all around the room flashed on. Through a bad signal, Sonic Exe spoke.

"Congratulations," he said. "You have earned your ticket home. Go to the hill where you first arrived. There will be a portal ready. However, you need to fuel it. Remember what you did last time. And good luck." The TVs then went black.

Something didn't feel right here. Why would Sonic Exe just let us go? He wasn't one to be merciful. However, I didn't wanna question it. A door opened to our right, leading out into the field of death and destruction. Amy helped me to my feet, and the three of us set out.

* * *

A few minutes later, we reached the top of the hill. A small, swirling purple and black hole stood in front of us. I'd almost blacked out several times on the walk, but now the pain was ebbing.

"Sonic," Sally said. "Can you do it?"

"It's not that hard," I said. "Of course I can, but stand back."

The girls did what I said. I closed my eyes and recalled Tails's death. Immediately, anger filled me towards Eggman. At the same time, Dark attempted to take control. The same strands of black smoke flew from my body and into the portal. I cried out, the most smoke coming from the gash in my arm, making it burn in pain. After a few minutes, the portal became a steady black hole.

"Go!" I said through clenched teeth.

"But are you—" Amy began.

"I'm fine, just go!"

She nodded and disappeared into the portal. Sally glanced at me worriedly and followed. I let it drag me toward it, and as soon as I could move, I walked into it.

We fell through the same black nothingness as before, but this time, we didn't scream. There was no fear. We knew we were going home. When the light neared us, I flipped so I was falling feet-first. I successfully landed on my feet, as did Sally. I caught Amy in my good arm and set her down. We were once again in Tails's attic.

"Let's get out of here," I said.

"Wait," Sally said. "Why not change you back here and now? There's no better place." She smiled a little.

I sighed. "Fine, but not a moment longer."

Sally opened her fist, revealing a deep orange, almost rusted-copper-colored stone. Amy took out the other two. Sally's was much darker than the others, and I wondered if that was a bad thing. I took out the seven Chaos Emeralds. I closed my eyes and concentrated on changing me back and ridding myself of Dark, calling upon the Emeralds to aid me.

"Uh, Sonic…?" Sally said worriedly. I opened my eyes slightly and saw that the Chaos Emeralds that floated around me and the Light Stones were gradually turning black. I tried cancelling it, but it was too late. The Emeralds and Stones turned completely black. I screamed as Dark finally took control, black smoke swirling out of me like a tornado, and I blacked out.

**(Do I need to say anything now? ENJOY THE SUSPENSE! Maybe I should just aggravate you all and wait a couple of days before posting the next chapter…Hm…)**

** ~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	14. Chapter 14 - Ruined

**(Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

** Sonic, Sally, and Amy have successfully escaped the dreaded Exe dimension, though coming out a little worse for wear. They've managed to get what they came for; the third and final Light Stone. However, it didn't come without a price. Something seems to be wrong with the Stone, but so far, the group has ignored it. This could be their fatal mistake… Go back to Chapter 13 – Recipe for Disaster to read about their escape, or read on to see what exactly is going on.**

**I'm changing whose point of view the story is in…for now. See if you can tell who's narrating the story. I'm rewinding it a bit, adding more detail to the last part of the previous chapter (because I was low on time when I wrote it), but re-writing the part in the other person's POV.**

**Here we go, the much awaited next chapter!)**

I watched as the Chaos Emeralds slowly circle around Sonic, the Light Stones lying at his feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed one of the Light Stones, which had been darker in color than the rest, turning black. The Stone looked like the inside was filled with dark smoke. One by one, the other Light Stones faded to black, and then the Chaos Emeralds. This wasn't good.

"Uh, Sonic?" I asked, my voice trembling slightly.

Sonic's eyes opened, his concentration broken by my voice. His eyes widened in panic when he saw what was going on, but it was already too late. I had a feeling I wouldn't see those green eyes in a minute…

The Emeralds spun faster around him, emitting a bit of black smoke and light that seemed to be pointed toward Sonic. He dropped to his knees with an ear-splitting scream, clutching his head, but the next moment he bent backwards, his back arched, a whirlwind of black smoke spiraling out of his chest. His eyes were opened wide, completely white and glowing brightly. He was still screaming. The smoke flew out the windows and any crack they could get into. Amy and I stumbled backwards, away from him. Something told me all our efforts had been for nothing.

"Sonic!" Amy and I cried, not that screaming his name would do any good.

What few lights had been on upstairs now flickered out. I heard seven soft _plunk_s as the Emeralds hit the floor, their faint glow going out. It was suddenly absolutely quiet in the room except the ominous ticking of a clock, and it was pitch black in the room, no light from the outside seeming to get in. A moment later, I heard shuffling, and then Sonic's eyes opened, being the only light in the room. But they weren't the same eyes I knew. They weren't the warm, green, ambitious eyes that have seen so much and told me we were safe in even the hardest of times. They didn't hold that distant, longing gaze I was so used to, or that look that could warm anyone and give them hope. Instead, there were no pupils, no irises. His eyes were white, glowing, and cold, and they gave me a sense of fear I had never felt with him. When I made out Amy's petrified face, I could tell she felt the same way I did.

The soft glow of the Emeralds returned; dim through the blackness of the gems. A sly grin spread across Sonic's – no, _Dark's_ – face and he took a step toward us.

"Well, well, well," he said in a cold voice, very different from the cocky voice that was supposed to come out of that body. "You two _pests, _the ones who tried helping him try to defeat me." He tilted his head up slightly, smirking. "Perhaps I should thank you. You helped him collect the very Stones I needed to gain power. Thanks to my good friend Sonic Exe, the Light Stones were corrupted, and that spread to the Chaos Emeralds, whose power transferred to me." He sounded almost bored, yet amused. "A shame though. I enjoyed watching you suffer in that dimension. You will be the first to die." An orb of swirling purple, black, and slightly red light formed in his palm.

"C'mon," I hissed. I grabbed Amy's wrist and scrambled to my feet. I practically had to drag her away from him.

"You can't run, and you can't hide, so why resist?" Dark taunted.

To a certain degree, he was right. The house was too small to run through, but maybe we could hide. We just have to get out of the light…

I darted into another room, where the dim light of the Chaos Emeralds didn't reach, Amy stumbling behind me. I nearly tripped over a bed, and I realized this must be Tails's bedroom. My throat closed up with tears, but I forced them back. I dove into the closet and pulled Amy in with me. As quietly as I could, I closed the door most of the way. I heard footsteps and peeked through the crack in the door as Dark walked in.

"I know you're in here," he said. "Don't play me for a fool."

"We have to get those Chaos Emeralds," I said under my breath to Amy. "Maybe we can change them back somehow."

"Yeah, but how?" Amy hissed. "He'll corrupt the whole world. Plus, he wants to kill us!"

"We'll just have to be fast," I whispered. I looked through the crack again and gasped, seeing Dark coming straight for us. It took all of my willpower to wait until he was just close enough, but then I opened the door as quick as I could, hitting him in the face and knocking him back behind the door.

"RUN!" I cried, and took off toward the other room, Amy on my heels. We bolted for the Chaos Emeralds, but suddenly we were knocked forward by a blast from Dark that sent a sharp pain up my back. I didn't look behind me, but I could hear him coming nearer.

"Naughty, naughty girls," he said, but he sounded angry that we had tried to best him. "Think you can beat me, eh?" I could hear him charging up his next attack, but while on my hands and knees, I crawled forward as fast as I could and grabbed the Emeralds closest to me. I also managed to grab one of the Light Stones.

"Amy!" I cried. She knew what I wanted her to do.

"But…I can't…hurt him!" Amy cried. "I know he's still in there!"

"Amy, listen to me, that isn't the Sonic we know," I hissed. "But if you insist on thinking that, just remember all the times he's stood you up but you never got the chance to pound him!" I was desperate. I didn't want to hurt Sonic any more than she did, but did we really have a choice in the matter?

At my words, she froze for a moment, then took out her hammer and stood. "Why you little—" She swung at him, but he put out his hand and her hammer stopped and vibrated just centimeters from his hand, like she'd hit something. From where her hand hit, a wave of black energy spread out in a sphere around him, then disappeared. It all happened very quickly. Amy looked shocked that her hammer didn't hit him. A moment after that all happened, I remembered what I was doing and scrambled to get the rest of the Emeralds and Stones. When my back was turned, I heard Amy squeak in surprise and I looked over my shoulder to see that Dark had grabbed her by her throat, lifting her a few feet off the ground. He looked at me and smirked.

"One blast and your little friend is gone," he hissed. His eyes were filled with hatred. "So don't move, and drop what you're holding."

I was torn. After Tails's death, I wouldn't be able to stand losing Amy, who was the closest thing I had to a sister. But I also couldn't afford to lose the Emeralds and Stones if it meant changing Sonic back. I just glared at him, hoping my fear didn't show.

Amy's hammer was slipping in her hand, but she adjusted her grip and held firm. She knew I couldn't choose, so she worked up the strength to smack Dark in the arm, where Tails Doll had cut him only minutes, but what seemed like hours, earlier. He screamed in pain and dropped Amy, clutching his arm. Amy dropped her hammer and ran over to me, scooping up the rest of the Emeralds that I hadn't picked up.

"C'mon!" she cried, and bolted toward the staircase. I ran after her, determined to get out of here as fast as possible. By the time we had opened the door, Dark had recovered.

"Oh, no you don't!" he cried, and shot a blast straight at us. We dove into the staircase, not looking to see where it hit, and ran as fast as we could down the steps and towards the front door. Amy purposely kicked up the edge of the rug at the base of the steps. When we neared the door, Dark raced down the steps, but wasn't looking where he was going and tripped over the rug, falling on his hurt arm. Once again, he cried out, and Amy and I took the opportunity to race out the front door, virtually unscathed.

However, the world outside took our breath away.

The sky had turned completely black, like night, but with a reddish tint. The whole city looked gloomy, but shadow people danced in the streets while Mobians ran for their lives. All around us were the screams of terrified citizens, the crying of petrified children, and the laughter of the Exes that had been released into our world. Amy and I walked quickly away from Tails's house, Dark's screams turning into maniacal laughter.

This was the start of the new Dark Ages.

**(DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNN! Yes, I purposely waited a day to post this. Mostly because when I first started writing this chapter, I started laughing cause I realized I had no idea what to write and gave up for the day. I'm already over halfway done with this story! I'm kinda sad…So, what do you guys think is going to happen next? Any ideas? Anybody? Anything?**

** Also, I'm looking for tips on how to get more reviews. I've already gotten almost 2.5k views, and I'm so stoked about that, but I have no idea how to get reviews. And I mean like, almost a dozen a day, getting hundreds of reviews over all. Anyone got tips on that? I'd really appreciate it; it'd motivate me to become a writer when I get older. Also, I appreciate writing tips.**

** Okay, I'm done. GAH CURSED PROOFREADING NOW. (Well, I'm done proofreading now, so HALELUIA.) Adios, all you….random….bookworms.)**

**~SonicTheHedgehogNerd**


	15. Chapter 15 - Searching for Light

**(Okay, two things. One; should I change the story title? If so, any ideas? Or should I stick with ****_In the Dark?_**** PLEASE REVIEW OR COMMENT OR PM ME YOUR ANSWER.**

** Two; I now have a co-author! The guest reviewer RobinsInTheSky who helped me out SO MUCH with the plot of this story now has an account (RobinsonSiblings) and is a full-time contributor to the story. Believe me, this story is so much longer than I originally anticipated and I LOVE it!**

** Anyway…**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

******It's finally happened. Dark has taken control of Sonic. It seems that Sally's and Amy's efforts to help him have been for nothing. But they can't give up hope yet. After a harsh battle with their former friend, Sally and Amy have successfully stolen the Chaos Emeralds and Light Stones from Dark's grasp. However, the dimension of Exe has been released, and the Exes are running amuck in the streets of Mobius, terrifying its citizens. Can Sally and Amy return the power to the Emeralds and Stones before their whole world is turned upside-down? Or will Dark cease control of the entire planet? Go back to Chapter 14 – Ruined for more info on the previous chapter, or read on to find the answers to these questions!)**

Amy and I walked down the street and past the shadow people. They didn't disturb us, surprisingly. At least, not for a while. Once we were a few blocks away from the house, the Exes started flying at us, charging us. We, at first, fought them off, but eventually had to duck into alleyways to avoid them. After a good several blocks of dodging the shadows, I was exhausted. I slumped against one of the buildings in an alley to catch my breath.

"Do we even…know where we're…going?" I panted.

Amy shook her head, doubled over. "Not…really…"

"We need a plan," I said, standing back up.

"Well…" Amy said, straightening. "We could go and see Knuckles."

"That might be an option," I said. "Maybe Angel Island hasn't been corrupted yet."

Angel Island was a small, floating continent, kept aloft by the controller of the Chaos Emeralds; the Master Emerald. Our friend Knuckles lives there and guards the Master Emerald.

Amy nodded at my suggestion. "But how do we get there? Neither of us knows how to fly a plane…"

I frowned. Tails has always been our mode of transportation to the floating island. How do we get there…?

"Let's just try and find the island first," I said. "We can make a plan then."

Amy nodded. Since we didn't want to run anymore, we climbed a fire escape (I had to boost Amy to bring down the ladder) to the roof and, since all the buildings were close together, ran from rooftop to rooftop. But just below us, people were screaming and running in terror. Hopefully, that would all change in a few hours.

* * *

A couple of hours later, we were standing on the top of one of Mobius's many mountains, watching Angel Island as it floated closer. I had already called our friend via Nicole and comlink, so he knew we were coming. As it neared us, a rope ladder was dropped down from the surface of the island. I grabbed hold and climbed up, quickly followed by Amy.

The sky here was blue, as usual, but in the distance you could see the darker skies moving closer by the minute. I was glad this place was still untouched by Dark's taint.

Waiting for us at the top of the ladder was a red echidna named Knuckles, sporting dreadlocks that hung past his shoulders. His gloves were more like mittens, with two spikes on his namesake. He offered a hand to us, helping each of us up onto the grassy plain.

"So, what brings you here?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"We were wondering if you could turn these back to normal," I said, opening the bag I had over my shoulder and showing Knuckles its contents.

"The Chaos Emeralds," he said. "And are those…"

"The Light Stones, yes," I finished.

"Ah. What happened?" Knuckles asked. "Does it have to do with the dark skies over there?"

"It's kinda a long story," I said.

"We have time."

"Actually, not much. But I'll try to keep it short. As you know, when Sonic gets really angry he turns Dark, right?"

"Right…"

"When Tails…died, Sonic did go Dark. Eggman did something to him that gave his Dark form a mind of its own, and since then it's been trying to take control of him. Well, as you can tell…it succeeded, and corrupted the Emeralds and Stones. Now he's slowly taking over the world. So we were wondering if it was possible to change them back before the Darkness he's spreading hits the island."

"Well, I can fix the Emeralds fairly quickly with the Master Emerald," he said. "But the Light Stones…I've heard of them and researched them, and I don't think it's possible to change them back. Their power has been sucked out of them, turned into Dark energy, and used up. There's nothing here strong enough to change them back."

I frowned. "Would we still be able to use the Emeralds against Sonic—I mean Dark?"

"I'm not sure, but let's just start with changing the Emeralds back," Knuckles said, "before they cause more trouble for us. We need to go to Mystic Ruin for the Master Emerald. Luckily, it's not too far from here. C'mon." He ran off, and we followed.

A couple minutes later, we reached the site; the ruins of what looked like a stone temple stood in the middle of the island, with a shrine holding the Master Emerald at its core. We trudged up the steps to the top of the shrine, which overlooked most of the island. After following simple instructions, the seven black Chaos Emeralds surrounded the giant, green Master Emerald, with the Light Stones tucked safely away in my bag. Knuckles stood in front of the Master Emerald, raised his hands, and started chanting.

"Oh, great Master Emerald, please aid us in our time of need. Restore the power to the Chaos Emeralds so they may help us in the fight against the Darkness. The servers are the seven Chaos, the Master Emerald serves to unify their power. Here my cry, we need you!"

As he spoke, the Master Emerald glowed brighter and brighter, and the Emeralds regained their light and power one by one. Each of them emitted a white light that engulfed the entire shrine.

"No!" Knuckles cried. "Not this again! It's Chaos Control!"

But it wasn't Chaos Control. The Chaos Emeralds disappeared in seven streaks of light, going off in different directions. I groaned, having seen it before. When the light faded, the Emeralds were gone.

I looked at Amy; Amy looked at me.

"Well, that just made our job harder," Amy said.

I nodded.

"Sorry, guys," Knuckles said. "But at least they're back to normal."

I sighed. "It's alright, thanks for the help."

"So…what now?" Amy asked. "Do we have to find them all?"

"We might have to…" I sighed. "But I don't think we'll have time. There has to be another way."

"Well, you could talk to Shadow," Knuckles suggested.

"Who?" I asked.

"Shadow the Hedgehog," he replied. "He knows Sonic and knows a lot about the Chaos Emeralds, though not as much as I do."

"I knew him for a time," Amy added, "but we haven't talked in years."

"Great, why don't we go and find him?" I said, hope replacing the helplessness I felt a moment ago.

"Last time I talked to him," Knuckles said, "he was working at GUN. But that was months ago, and GUN moved their base and isn't telling where. I'm not sure if he's still with them."

I frowned and looked up at the sky, which was streaked with color from the setting sun. Soon, we wouldn't be able to distinguish night from day, and there would be no sleep from the terror that would sweep the nation. Our very reality was falling apart at the hands of one corrupted hero.

"I'd rather not search at night," I said. "I'm guessing those Exes are more active then than during the day."

"_Exes_?" Knuckles asked.

I looked at him. "When Sonic lost control, he released a dimension called Exe. He's working with someone to take over the world."

"Ah," he said. "Well, there's a secret cave under the shrine, you guys can use that. Look for the ancient symbol of the echidna tribes. Push it in, and the cave will open."

I nodded. "Thanks, Knux." Amy and I walked down the steps, but at the base, Amy paused.

"What about you?" she called up to the echidna. "You're in as much danger as we are."

"I have my job, you have yours," he responded. "You go."

Amy hesitantly nodded and followed me. We circled the shrine until we found the rune, about the size of my hand. As Knuckles had instructed, I pushed it in like a button. A stone slab below it slid aside with a grinding sound, revealing a crawlspace. I crouched down and shuffled on my hands and knees inside, closely followed by Amy. The inside of the shrine was hollow, so we stood in a huge cavern, the light from the Master Emerald seeping in through cracks in the ceiling. The corners of the cavern were full of spiders and cobwebs. Two mattresses lay in the corners of the room. I went back outside, grabbed a pine branch, and used it to clear most of the cobwebs away. After beating the dust out of the mattresses, Amy and I lie down and fell into a troubling, nightmare-filled sleep.

**(So. That's that. Enjoying it so far? Sorry I didn't post this EXACTLY a day after, but oh well.**

** On Thursday I'm leaving for a writers/artists conference that lasts all day. I'm excited and nervous. I'm doing writing this year, but I don't know what to write! I probably won't be able to post Thursday or Friday, so sorry about that! Hope you're enjoying the story so far! Almost hit 3k views! EEP! Still need the reviews though…**

** That's all for now!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	16. Chapter 16 - Evade

**(Couple of things before we start…**

**One…3k views! YAY! I beat one of my friends on views. :3 I know it's the reviews I'm after, but…I have no idea how to get people to review.**

**Two…Thanks to Skye' advice, I'm keeping the title as it is. Don't wanna confuse you guys!**

**Three…Sorry I haven't posted this chapter yet, I've been kinda depressed about something. I found out someone, who I thought was my friend, stole one of my most expensive and prized jewelry pieces and keeps stealing things from other places. But you can PM me about that if you want to know that story…**

**Anyway, I'm babbling. ONWARD.**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

******The whole of Mobius is being terrorized by beings from another dimension, thanks to the control Dark has over Sonic. Sally and Amy have successfully evaded the mysterious Exes, and have searched out their friend Knuckles for advice on how to turn the corrupted Chaos Emeralds and Light Stones back to normal. However, Knuckles explained that the Light Stones could not be changed back because their power had been completely transferred to the Dark energy. Also, upon attempting to get the Emeralds their power back, all seven scattered. Now the girls have no plan and no way to change Sonic and their world back to its original state. However, maybe a "shadowy" friend might be able to help…)**

I woke to the screams of some unworldly creatures and Knuckles fighting. I sat up and realized I couldn't see anything; the Master Emerald no longer aided us with its light. I picked up the branch I used to clean the spider webs out of the place, took out my emergency matches, and lit the cobweb-covered branches. In a moment, I held a torch sparking with brilliant orange flames. I saw Amy sitting up, awake, and looked around for the exit. I found the crawlspace we had used to get in, pushed in the same rune that was on the outside, and the stone door slid open.

It was as dark as night out. There were no stars, and no moon, though my comlink said it was past nine in the morning. The grass was dead, and crunched under our feet. It was unusually cold. At the top of the shrine, our red echidna friend was fighting off a group of Exes. The Master Emerald was shattered and its power had been drained. Without hesitating, Amy and I ran into battle

These Exes were smaller than the ones we saw in the city. A number of them lay unconscious on the ground and on the stairs, knocked out by Knuckles' strong punches. Amy, using a spare hammer, and I, using my own acrobatic moves and martial arts skills, fought off the Exes that were trying to reach the top of the shrine. While I was distracted with one coming dangerously close to the stairs, one that was supposedly unconscious sank its sharp teeth into my ankle. I screamed in pain and tried to shake it off, but it held firm. Blood dripped down my foot and into my boot, and a burning, searing pain raced up my entire leg. I stomped on its hand as hard as I could multiple times before it released me. Hearing the snarling Exe I was fighting behind me, I threw up my fist and my knuckles connected with its jaw. It fell backwards, unconscious. By now, Amy and Knuckles had most of the invaders handled, so I sat on the steps, shoving the Exe that bit me aside into the pool of water below and examined the bite wound.

There were several holes where each of the teeth penetrated, with strange black liquid mingling with the crimson blood. I started to wash the wound using the water from the pool surrounding the shrine, where I had thrown the Exe just a minute earlier. I grimaced and grit my teeth when my fingertips touched the tender flesh and washed the blood and black substance out of the wounds. Without something to cover it, I risked infection, and with the unknown dimension having reached us, I didn't know how quickly it could set in. I ripped off the seam of my teal vest and wrapped it tightly around the wound as a temporary bandage, cringing in pain. As soon as it was tucked in and tied, I tested my injured ankle, putting some of my weight on it. Immediately, pain raced through my ankle and up my leg, and I opened my mouth in a silent scream and shifted my weight to my other leg, relieving some of the pressure. I turned to Amy and Knuckles, who were talking at the top of the shrine.

"C'mon," I said to Amy. "If we're going to meet up with Shadow, we better go now."

She looked down at me, noticed my awkward stance and gasped. "What happened?!"

"Got bitten. It's no big deal, I washed it."

She frowned, and then turned to Knuckles. "Thanks for helping us, despite what happened. Good luck with the Master Emerald." She put her hammer away and ran down the steps to meet me at the base.

"Good luck, you two," Knuckles said. I smiled grimly at him and hobbled off, with Amy's shoulder to lean on.

* * *

A few hours of painful walking and one fearsome rope ladder decent later, we were sitting in a small medical center in the middle of all the discord outside. The medical center was just an old underground bomb shelter housing a number of people injured from the Exes, with just a curtain to separate them. The place smelled putrid, like vomit, blood, and disease. The smell brought the taste of bile to my mouth. One of the volunteer nurses that worked at the place led me to an open cot in the back of the room and laid me down.

"We have very little pain-killers left," she said in a sympathetic voice. "We're trying to get more, but this is happening everywhere and we're in short supply."

I nodded and the nurse left to get the supplies she needed to treat me. Amy stood by the cot.

"We can't just stay here while my ankle heals," I said. "Could you ask around for information on Shadow's whereabouts?"

"Sure," Amy said, and walked off.

Hours later, my ankle had been properly cleaned, treated, bandaged, and braced, but I was ordered to stay in bed for another couple of days. I knew we didn't have that kind of time. So when Amy returned, I was forming a plan to sneak out unnoticed.

"Any luck?" I asked.

"Yeah," Amy said. "There was a former military sergeant here who said when they moved to a different military base, Shadow kept insisting he go back to the old one. He always disappears off to there. Maybe we should start there?"

I nodded and told her my plan. She agreed with me and told me we'd rendezvous later.

At 22:50, the lights went out for bedtime. Using a bell by my bedside, I rang for assistance. A nurse came over to me.

"What do you need?" she asked quietly.

"I need to use the restroom, but I don't think I can get there on my own," I asked. "Could you help me?"

"Sure," she said after a moment's hesitation. She helped me out of bed and guided me towards the bathroom.

"I'll wait out here for when you're done," the nurse said. I smiled, feeling a little guilty for what I was about to do, and went inside.

Amy stood in a corner, arms crossed.

"Ready?" she asked.

I nodded. There was a window in the bathroom near the ceiling, and a ledge just below it. Keeping my weight off my injured ankle, I boosted Amy onto the ledge, and she unlocked and opened the window, which had extremely thick glass. She pushed out the screen and it fell onto the grass just below the base of the window. She then took out her hammer and held it down to me. I grabbed on and she pulled me up onto the ledge. One after the other, we crawled out of the shelter and onto the dead grass outside. I closed the window and replaced the screen once we were both out. Now, we could do what we wanted.

The streets in the city were full of Exes and shadow people. We were hidden behind some bushes, currently invisible to them. I took out a small handheld device from a pouch strapped around my leg and spoke to it.

"Nicole," I said quietly. "Locate the former GUN base."

"Locating, Sally," my machine said. A moment later, a holographic map was being projected onto the ground in front of us.

"Alright. So we're here," I said, pointing to a red blip. "We need to get here." I then pointed to a green blip. "Nicole, display all life forms in the area." Immediately, about a hundred tiny, moving white dots appeared on the map. There were clusters of them in certain places, like in homes. With Amy, I plotted a route best to get to the base, most of which were through alleyways. After we had confirmed the route, I checked how many Exes were walking by the bomb shelter. There were about a dozen, and I knew how to distract them. I took out one of my Mobium coins and rolled it down the street. The glint of the coin caught their attention and they chased after it, pushing and shoving, and eventually getting into a brutal, bloody fist fight over it. While they were distracted, Amy and I ran – or, I should say I limped – across the street and into an alley. We followed it out onto the next street, doing similar distractions like rolling something shiny down the street or throwing a rock at a window before running down the street to the next alleyway, and so on. We ran on trouble-free, the holographic map guiding us, for several blocks. It wasn't until we were about halfway to the base. We were crossing Third Main Street (Mobotropolis has more than one main road), when four Exes dropped from rooftops into the road.

"This way," I hissed, pulling Amy into another alley, ignoring the map. The Exes followed. Amy ran ahead, since she was faster, and I tipped over a couple trash cans as I ran. The Exes were distracted by the noise and the contents spilling out of the bins, so they quickly forgot the chase and examined the garbage. Amy and I kept running until we were sure they wouldn't be able to find us, my ankle by now was throbbing intensely. Once we had made it safely into an abandoned building, I doubled over, breathing hard.

"They're dangerous…" I panted, "but they're not very bright."

Amy gave an exhausted laugh.

After we'd caught our breath, we checked the map to see where we were.

"We're about two blocks away from the base," I said. "What now?"

Amy looked around. "I know this building. It's one of the shops in the mall."

Sure enough, though it was dark, I could see racks of clothing and accessories. By the looks of it, it was a children's store, entitled Chao Fashions. Though it was painted and decorated to be kid-friendly, it was out-of-place and creepy in the dark. I felt like something was watching me.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"These stores connect," Amy said, pointing to the holographic map. "Going to the end of the mall would put us a block closer, which is good considering how big this block is."

I looked at the map and gasped.

"What?"

I pointed out a horde of Exes in the halls, several of which were in this room. "Is there a way we can get rid of them?"

Amy looked around. "There!" She pointed to a fire alarm, and without me having to say so, she stood up, opened the case, and pulled it.

The shrill sound of bells rang out around the mall, so loud we both had to cover our ears. I could hear the screams of the Exes, and in masses of black smoke, they flew out of the doors and windows, desperate to get away from the noise. Keeping our hands over our ears, Amy and I ran out of the store and down one of the halls connecting all of the other stores in the mall until we reached the end. We exited the store out of the emergency exit, which deposited us in an alley. A door to another building stood in front of us. According to our map, there were no more than two Exes in the building. Using a bat I found in the alley, I smashed a window. Amy and I immediately ducked down behind a trash can. Two Exes flew out of the window to investigate, and I threw the bat into the road, which they chased after. Amy darted into the building, followed by me.

This building seemed to be the lobby of an office building. Cubicles with glass doors lined the walls, with a large desk in the center of the large room. Four pillars held the ceiling up. Paper was scattered across the floor, blown by the wind two ceiling fans produced. Most disturbing, however, were blood splatters against the glass doors in the cubicles and behind the desk. I gasped when I saw a bloody handprint on the door of the cubicle closest to us. There was also a dark mass slumped against the door, and I didn't look long enough to figure out what it was, though I already had a troubling idea. We walked across the room to a side door which led to the street. But as we walked behind the desk, a scream escaped Amy's lips. On instinct, I looked.

A human body was slumped under the desk, gored beyond recognition. Its mouth was open in a silent scream, and its eyes had been gouged out. Dried blood stained the side of its head from a split in its skull and blood stained its plaid shirt, which had a large hole in its chest, where its heart would be. I felt like I was going to vomit, and I knew I wasn't sleeping again tonight.

After seeing the body, Amy and I ran to the door. By now, the pain in my leg had numbed from the adrenaline racing through my veins. Outside, a giant building guarded by a barbed wire fence stood across the street, looming over us. The fence was ajar. This was our destination.

Amy and I ran past the fence and to the door. I tried the handle, but it didn't budge.

"Locked," I sighed.

"Leave it to me," she smirked, taking out her giant mallet. With a mighty swing, the door flew open and slammed against the wall. The base, at first glance, was completely dark. It looked abandoned. But it was very similar to the base the military is using now. Then I noticed the faint glow of a TV at the front desk. I walked over to it, hesitantly after what we saw at the office building. There was no body this time, just the TV showing images from security cameras around the base. When it flashed to the General's room, I saw that, sitting in the General's chair, was an black hedgehog, resembling Sonic in many ways. Since the TV was in black and white, I couldn't tell all the details. He looked relaxed, with his hands behind his head, eyes closed, feet up on the desk, frowning. I was almost certain this was who we were looking for.

"Amy!" I called to her. She stopped looking at a statue of the General and ran over to me. I pointed to the screen. "Is that Shadow?"

"Yeah," Amy said. "So he stole the General's office?" I could see a smirk playing on her lips.

I smiled. "Shall we go?"

"Yeah, just be careful. He has a bit of a temper."

I nodded and asked Nicole to pull up a map of the base. Shadow was on the third floor, fourth hallway. I groaned, noticing the elevator was out of order, realizing how painful walking up stairs would be. Amy smiled sympathetically, and we started up the steps.

When we reached the top, my ankle was throbbing intensely, and beads of sweat had formed on my forehead. I didn't want to walk anymore, but I had to. We found the General's office and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so I tested the doorknob. The door opened.

The first thing I saw was an ebony hedgehog with red highlights in his quills pointing a gun at us. Immediately, he fired.

**(The only person who knows what comes next is…SKYE! And me. XD I don't have an AN at this point, other than this is the longest chapter so far! Almost 3,000 words! Should I make it 3,000 words? Nah…too lazy. So review what you think and stay tuned for the next post. :)**

** Bye all!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	17. Chapter 17 - Another Option

**(Last time on ****_In the Dark_****…**

** The savage Exe dimension is reaching across the globe, engulfing it in Darkness and consuming Mobius in fear and despair. Sally and Amy are fighting their way across the corrupted city in search of a way to make things normal again. Their first attempts to stop it had failed. Now, the duo, slowed by Sally's injury, has found what may be their last hope. But just as they reach him, their friend pulled a gun on them. Will their last hope be the last face they see?)**

_Bang!_

The gun went off. Amy and I jumped out of the way with a yelp just in time. The bullet shattered the glass on a picture frame behind us. Amy and I stared at the ebony hedgehog in bewilderment.

"Can't take too many chances," he said in a low, quiet voice. He twirled the gun in his hand and tossed it in a corner of the room.

"Uh, you must be Shadow," I said in a shaky voice.

"Yeah, so?" he replied.

"Shadow, we need to talk to you about something," Amy asserted. "May we come in?"

"I'm not stopping you." He took a step back to admit us. We entered, and Amy wasted no time getting down to business.

"As you've probably noticed," she began, "everywhere outside is oddly dark and full of strange creatures. You don't know the story behind that, do you?"

"Of course not," he said. "I don't have time for the news. Don't tell me it has to do with that faker. You would force him to come with you, yet he's not here."

"Yes, Sonic is involved. Actually, he's the entire reason this is happening." She then launched into Sonic's story, beginning with the mission that ended in Tails's death to our journey to this base. Shadow, who was leaning against a desk with his arms crossed, listened but didn't look like he cared much. He didn't speak until she finished.

"Why should I care what happens to this planet?" he asked, indifferent. "It's not my fault you're in this mess."

"But you could help us fix it," I commented. "You care for the citizens of this world, don't you?'

"Look, girlie," he snapped. "You're comparing me with that faker, Sonic. I'm not a goodie-two-shoes like you two are. If some people die, what's it to me? It doesn't affect me in any way, so I don't care."

"What if they come for you?" I begged.

"I'll fight them, then."

"They'll just keep coming for you, and in masses," I said, becoming more confident. I was used to these kinds of arguments with Sonic. I wondered where he was now…

Shadow narrowed his eyes. "I've faced worse. I'm the Ultimate Lifeform. They're no match for me."

Yep, he definitely reminds me of Sonic.

"And if you're the only one alive on this planet, then what? What would you do?"

"I'll enjoy the peace and quiet."

"Do you care for anyone?!" I snapped. "You're _exactly _like Sonic! You're big-headed, selfish, lazy, and persistent when it comes to arguing!"

At this, Shadow straightened and glared daggers at me.

"Don't compare me to him!" he growled.

"Why not? Despite all that selfishness and whatever, he seems to be better than you! You're abandoning everyone and leaving them to die. Sonic would never do that! You're about as twisted as Dark if you think letting everyone die has any benefit for you."

Shadow clenched his fists, looking like he was about to blow a fuse. But after a moment, he sighed and closed his eyes, pressing his fingertips to his forehead. "Fine. If you'll stop nagging me, I'll help you. I suppose there is one thing you can do."

"And what's that?" Amy asked.

He opened his eyes and looked at us. "You could use the Chaos Emeralds and go back in time. It sounds like this started with Tails dying. You can go back to that time and prevent it from happening. Then Dark won't have existed in the first place, the Light Stones you spoke of will be back to normal, the dimension Exe will never have been released, and just like that, it's all fixed."

"Yeah, that might work," I said. "But we don't know how. And we have no Emeralds."

"I suppose I have to go with you then. I possess the power of Chaos Control, which can teleport us to the time period we need to go to. Not only that, but I happen to have come across one of the Chaos Emeralds this morning on my way here." From behind his back, he took out one of the Emeralds, glowing bright red. "I need two to do it, though. We don't need all seven."

"How are we going to find the other one?" Amy asked.

"I also have the power to sense where the other Emeralds are."

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Minutes later, Shadow, Amy and I were racing through town, Shadow skating ahead on hover shoes and the two of us following on hover scooters, after it was pointedly noted by a certain black hedgehog that my injury would get us killed. Shadow clutched the Chaos Emerald in his fist, leading us deeper and deeper into the city. After several minutes, we stopped in front of a large building. I pulled up a holographic map of it to see how many Exes were in the building and where the Chaos Emerald was located. I was stunned. There were hundreds of Exes, most of which were surrounding the Emerald.

"Are you sure we'll be able to do this?" Amy asked, sounding unsure.

"Of course I am," Shadow snapped. "I'll cause a distraction. Once they leave, we'll go inside. Got me?"

We nodded.

Shadow thrust his hand up in the air. "Chaos…Control!" he shouted, and a burst of red energy shot from his palm and exploded in the air. Immediately, Amy and I bolted into the building, closely followed by Shadow. As we left, hundreds of shadow creatures and Exes flew past us to investigate. The Chaos Emerald was on the middle floor. Not wanting to wait for the elevator, Shadow ran up the stairs, followed by Amy, while I lagged behind. After a long and tiring run up the stairs, we came to the fifteenth floor. Apparently, not all the Exes had left. About five dozen surrounded a pedestal holding a white Chaos Emerald. The pedestal was an anthro hedgehog, frozen and dead, kneeling down and holding the Emerald high over her head in both hands. Her mouth was open in a scream. A pole had been stabbed through her head and down her back, which is what held her up. I wanted to scream, knowing what this world was coming to.

"Now what?" Amy whispered, for the Exes hadn't noticed us.

"Leave them to me," Shadow said. He slipped off his Inhibitor Rings that were around his wrists and dropped them to the ground. The sound of them falling and the small flashes of light they gave off when they were removed caught the Exes' attention. They started forward, towards us. Shadow didn't hesitate. He skated forward, a field of red light forming around him, pulsing outward, knocking the Exes down and leaving a path. I grabbed the Inhibitor Rings and followed his wake. The three of us reached the pedestal unscathed. Shadow wrenched the Emerald out of the dead Mobian's hands just as the Exes started closing in on us, in larger masses than before.

"Shadow…?" I said nervously, backing into him.

"I'm working on it!" he cried. He crossed his arms in an X over his chest, one Emerald in each hand. The Exes were getting closer. I could feel Amy so close our shoulders were touching. They were so close I could touch them. They would kill us the same way those other Mobians died, slow and painful. I can't die, I can't leave the planet like this, I can't –

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow shouted, interrupting my thoughts. Immediately, a light emitted by the Chaos Emeralds engulfed us, and we disappeared, the Exes left swiping at empty air. Little did we know that we weren't as safe as we thought we would be.

_"What is the report?"_

_ "They seemed to have found an alternative option to dethrone you, Master Dark. They're time traveling."_

_ Dark grinned, despite the threat to his rule. "Intercept them, my friend. Send them someplace they can't return from."_

_ "Like where, Master?"_

_ "Let's make it…two hundred years in the future. Once they're there, close all portals. Send your shadow army and that fire creature to capture them and bring them to me…dead or alive. Sonic Exe and I will handle the rest."_

_ The image in the corrupted Chaos Emerald flickered. "Yes, Master," the being that looked vaguely like Shadow said, and the Emerald's light went out._

_ "Do you think they will succeed in bringing your counterpart back?" Sonic Exe said, looking bored in his throne of skulls._

_ "Of course they will," Dark replied. "They're persistent. The only thing I can do is delay his return. At the rate things are going…all that will be left on this planet will be us by the time they get back." Dark snapped his fingers, and the blade fell on the neck of the next Mobian in line. The anthro cat's head rolled to his feet. Dark picked it up and examined it, amused by the scared expression on the head's face. He smirked and tossed it onto the pile of heads behind him, which were being speared for decoration._

_ "Why don't you do the next one?" Dark asked, closing his eyes._

_ Sonic Exe smirked and snapped his fingers._

** (Ugh, I was gonna ask something…But I don't know what. MYERG. Uh, okay, autocorrect is broken, because it didn't say that was spelled wrong. Anyway, my fault for waiting so long to write this and not writing down what I had to ask.**

** What do you think so far? Where do you think Sonic is? What magical things can you find in your pocket? I dunno, review SOMETHING interesting.**

** I hate it when I can't remember something…Maybe proofreading will jog my memory. (It didn't.)**

** BWYE! (That's an inside joke, a select few will get that.) )**

** ~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	18. Chapter 18 - Fire and Friendship

**(Sorry for the late post. I was at a sleepover. While others sleep over at friend's houses, I sleep at my grandma's. I've been depressed about that… Reminds me of how few friends I really have that I haven't met on the Internet. :(**

**I think this may be what I was trying to remember in the last chapter! But most likely not. Oh well, I'm just going to say it now. What would you guys think if I did one or two Epilogue chapters showing what Sonic was doing while he was being controlled? Sorta as a side-story. My mom gave me the idea from 50 Shades of Gray. Think I wanna try it. And what do you think of my whole changing perspectives thing? Please review, greatly appreciated!**

** Oh, and this chapter contains minor swearing. Just a warning, but you can expect that with Shadow.**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

** Sally and Amy have traveled across their town of horrors to find Shadow the Hedgehog, someone who may have a clue as to how to change everything back to the way it was before Dark took control. Shadow explained that if they go back in time to the last mission they went on as Freedom Fighters, they could stop Tails's death, therefor preventing Dark from ever manifesting in Sonic and resealing the Exe dimension. They travel to a building that guards a Chaos Emerald needed to time travel, and were confronted by a horde of Dark's and Sonic Exe's servants. In an attempt to save time, Shadow removed his Inhibitor Rings and blasted a path to the Emerald. As the enemy closed in, the three of them teleported away just in time. Little do they know that the grip of Darkness is everywhere...)**

I felt like I was tumbling through nothing. It was similar to when Sonic, Amy and I were being teleported to the Exe dimension, but this felt smoother and less terrifying. I kept my eyes closed, but I could see bright light behind my eyelids. When it finally faded, I landed on something hot. I jumped to my feet with a yelp and ran away from the hot-spot. Only then did I opened my eyes and look around. Where I had landed was a thin part of rock on a platform beside a river of lava. A few seconds after I hopped away from the spot, a spurt of lava erupted from the red-hot ground. Amy moaned a few feet away, and even Shadow had collapsed. I helped Amy to her feet and went to aid Shadow, but he waved me away.

"I'm fine," he said in a slightly strained voice. "Just…give me a moment." I noticed he was breathing hard and stepped back.

"That happens to him after he removes his Inhibitor Rings," Amy told me quietly. "He releases a great amount of his power and loses energy fast. He used to pass out from it," she looked back at him, "but I see he's gotten a bit stronger."

I nodded and looked around a bit more at my surroundings. Slabs of rock floated on the lava river. A waterfall – or should I say "lavafall" – flowed down a wall of granite. We were inside an absolutely _huge_ cavern, so big I could barely see the other side. Looking up – _way_ up – was a small hole, letting in light from the outside. It wasn't daylight, though. It looked like nighttime. My guess was we were in a volcano. But one thing was certain; this definitely wasn't where we were intending on going.

"Shadow!" I called. "Where the heck are we?"

He looked up and looked around. **(Younger viewers, skip a paragraph. Then again, you probably shouldn't be reading a T-rated story anyway.) **"Damn!" he cried, pounding the ground once with his fist.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Not the place we meant to go to, I'll tell you that," he growled, standing. I tossed him his Inhibitor Rings, which I had grabbed before we teleported. He snatched them out of the air and clipped them back onto the black cuffs of his gloves.

"How do we get out of here?" Amy asked.

"Behold," Shadow announced, his voice echoing. Jets of air shot from the bottom of his shoes, and he floated a few feet above the ground. "I can _fly!_" **(XD Reference, anyone? Review if you know what that's from!)**

I smiled a little, a bit amazed that he even had a hint of a sense of humor. Abruptly, he grabbed our hands and took off, soaring towards the top of the volcano. As we flew, a low rumbling filled my ears. I looked down in time to see the lava rapidly rising.

"Uh, Shadow? Think you might wanna speed it up a bit…" My voice was shaky.

He did as I said. The lava also sped up. Shadow glanced down, and with a burst of speed, we shot out of the volcano. Seconds later, the lava followed as the volcano erupted, a spew of hot magma following us. Shadow eventually landed many miles away from the volcano, barely missing the splashes of hot orange lava. He let go of us and turned to watch the volcano, with rivers of magma running down the sides of it. After a few minutes, my panic died down and I lost interest, turning around to see where we had ended up.

We were standing on the edge of yet _another_ burning city, but this city wasn't nearly as terrifying as the one in Exe. This one was in ruins and almost completely engulfed in flames. I frowned.

"Guys, do you have any idea where we are?" I asked.

Amy turned and examined our surroundings. "No idea."

"It looks somewhat familiar," Shadow replied. "But I can't place it."

"I wonder if anyone lives here," I thought aloud.

"Let's go," Shadow replied. "Maybe we can find someone who can tell us where we are." Without hesitating, he skated off ahead. Amy followed, and I limped after them both.

We walked for an hour or so through the endless city. All we saw was ruined buildings up in flames, but they looked centuries old. Most of the windows were broken, and flames licked the sides of the buildings and burned debris in the roads. We had to hop over piles of ash, rubble, and even a fallen lamp-post that were cluttered in the street. So far, we saw no one, and the walk was relatively uneventful. That is, until we noticed the flames weren't staying in one spot.

They seemed to crawl from window to window, following us. The tongues of fire burned down the sides of buildings and all met right in front of us. We stopped walking to watch. As more and more of the strange flames gathered in the center of the street, a wall of fire soon grew in front of us. In under a minute, the wall of flame towered over us. Then, it came down on us like a wave.

"Run!" Amy cried, and we ran back the way we came. Seconds after we had escaped, the wave crashed down where we had been standing, scorching the ground, but it wasn't done. As we ran, it followed, rolling like the fiery lava we had seen earlier and quickly gaining ground. Shadow leaded, and bolted down an alley. We followed, but so did the flames. The alley led to a large clearing, which seemed to be a large paved city square with the ruined skyscrapers surrounding it. Before we could run down one of the adjoining streets, the blaze surrounded us, blocking any means of escape and closing up the top. We were trapped in a dome of fire, which was gradually closing in. I closed my eyes, feeling the heat against my skin and braced for the burning death I would surely meet, but it didn't come.

There was a large gust of wind that nearly knocked me off my feet. I shielded my face and dared to open my eyes. The fire had been driven back against the edges of the square and wasn't advancing. Looking closely, I could see a pale bluish-green aura against the orange glow of the flames. With another gust of wind and a burst of teal light, it quickly receded and disappeared. I looked at Shadow and Amy, the look on my face clearly asking who had helped us. Amy shrugged, but Shadow paid no heed. He was looking up, so we followed his gaze. Floating down to the ground from above us was an anthro hedgehog, much like Shadow and Sonic, surrounded in a teal aura. When he landed, I got a good look at him.

He was pale gray with brilliant golden eyes, lined in black. He wore gloves with gold cuffs, which had a glowing teal band around it and strange symbols on the front and back of his gloves. He had on knee-high black boots with the same gold cuffs. A white stripe ran down the front of his boots to the toe, which was turquoise. He had chest fur, like Shadow, but it ran all the way around the back of his neck and down his chest. His quills very much resembled a marijuana leaf, with two spikes at the back of his head and five fronds at the front. He wasn't any older than Sonic, to be sure. Now, he looked at us skeptically.

"I'm guessing you guys are new here," the strange hedgehog spoke up, putting a hand on his hip.

"M-maybe," I stuttered, still trying to recover from the shock of being attacked by fire that was alive. "Who are you?"

"My name's Silver the Hedgehog," said the hedgehog. "My companion should be here soon, her name's Blaze the Cat."

"Oh, well hi there," I said. "My name's Sally Acorn, and this is Amy Rose."

Amy waved enthusiastically. Shadow crossed his arms and looked away.

"And you are?" Silver urged to Shadow. I noticed a gleam of recognition in his bright eyes. Did he know Shadow?

"Shadow the Hedgehog," he huffed.

"Shadow…?" Silver repeated curiously. His eyes narrowed a little, as if trying to remember something.

"Yeah, got a problem with it?" he snapped, keeping his eyes closed.

"No, no, it just sounds familiar, that's all," Silver said quickly. "So how did—"

He was cut off.

"Silver, he's coming!" a female voice called from a rooftop. I looked up to see a purple anthro cat looking at us with the same gold eyes Silver had.

Silver looked up. "Open the safe house, Blaze, we have some new guests!" he replied.

Blaze nodded. She grabbed the edge of the building and nimbly swung in through a shattered window.

"C'mon," Silver said, and led us toward the entrance of the building. The three of us followed, Shadow somewhat reluctantly.

"Wait, who's coming?" I asked as I jogged behind him.

"Mephiles!" Silver answered. "I'll explain later."

Once inside the abandoned building, Silver led us down a set of steps to the basement. Blaze, surprisingly, was already there. The floor was coated in dust except for a line of footprints. The only things in the basement were a flickering light-bulb and a bookcase. Blaze tilted forward several random books, and the case slid aside, revealing a spiral staircase leading down. She bounded down the steps, and we followed. At the bottom, there was a locked door. Silver made his way past us and put his hand on it. It glowed with a teal aura and opened.

"After you," Silver said to Amy and I, gesturing inside. I blushed lightly at his kindness and went in, followed by the others. The door slid shut behind us.

The room we had stepped in was large and looked old. It had cracked concrete walls, and a large steel table surrounded in mismatched chairs; there was a plush couch, a rocking chair, recliner, steel stool, and so on. A clock hung on the wall, but it had broken down. The time it had stopped on was 20:83. Several bookshelves were bolted to the walls, holding thick volumes that looked like atlases and history books. There was also a map hung on the wall, which I guessed was a layout of the city. It had a number of red and purple dots on it in certain areas. Silver walked over to it, picked up a red pen, and added a red dot to a cluster of them in the scale station square.

"Have a seat," Blaze said. We obeyed, Amy and I sitting on the couch and Shadow sitting on a wood stool with a ripped cushion on the seat.

"So where are you guys from?" Silver asked, sitting across from us.

"How do you even know we're not from here?" Shadow asked, surprising me by him being the first to speak up.

"If you were from here, you'd be in the large underground safe house," Silver replied matter-of-factly.

Shadow said nothing.

"Actually, we're not even from this time period," I started to explain. Shadow shot me a glare, but I ignored it. "We were trying to time-travel to a time in the past, but I think we got transported to the future instead…"

"I've done a bit of time-traveling," Silver replied, looking interested. "I guess I should change my question. _When_ are you from?"

"We're from the year 3237, Day 77," I said. "When is it now?"

Silver frowned a little. "This is the year 3437, Day 77. You're 200 years in the future."

My eyes widened a little. Then I turned to Shadow. "How'd we end up 200 years in the future? We meant to go, like, two weeks in the past! How do you make a mistake like that?"

Shadow remained calm, his eyes closed. "I don't think I made the mistake. I felt some sort of interference when we transferred timelines. Someone was messing with my Chaos Control and must have sent us here."

I sighed heavily. "Probably Dark. Though how he could've known is beyond me."

"Wait, did you say Dark? As in Dark the Hedgehog?" Blaze suddenly spoke up.

I looked at the purple cat. "Yeah, why?"

Blaze looked down at her hands. "Some of his accomplices destroyed my dimension years ago."

"Oh…I'm sorry," I said sympathetically.

"You're from a different dimension?" Amy inquired.

Blaze looked at her. "Yes. I'm the princess of the Sol Dimension. I also protect the Sol Emeralds. But unfortunately, both were destroyed."

"You're a princess?" I asked. "I'm a princess, too. Heir to the throne of Mobius."

Blaze smiled a little.

"So what was that fire thing that attacked us earlier?" Amy asked.

"That is a creature known as Iblis," Silver explained. "Also known as the Flames of Disaster. There are two entities currently terrorizing this dimension, both released by Dark from your timeline; Iblis and Mephiles, who is the literal shadow of my father."

"What do you mean by that?" Shadow asked, glancing at him.

"Well, he manifested from his shadow and is now his own being," Silver replied. "That simple."

Shadow nodded once.

"What kind of powers do you guys have?" Amy questioned.

"I have psycokinesis," Silver answered, "and Chaos Control. Blaze has pyrokinesis, meaning she controls fire."

"Cool," I commented.

There was a long silence. I was pretty much out of questions. It was broken by none other than Shadow, who said, "That's all good to know, but we best be going."

"I'm afraid you can't do that," Blaze said simply.

"Why not?" Shadow snapped, standing abruptly.

"No need to get angry!" Silver said with a hint of panic in his voice. "I just mean all time portals have been closed. No one's going anywhere."

"How do you know?" Shadow growled, glaring at him skeptically..

"Before I helped you guys get rid of Iblis, I was trying to teleport to the time when Dark lived to see if I could stop him from destroying different dimensions. The time portal didn't open, so I tried several others. None of them worked. So I figured all of them were closed. It must've closed right after you guys got here."

"So…what do we do?" Amy asked, sounding worried.

"Guess you're stuck here until we figure out a plan," Blaze replied, sounding lighthearted for the first time since we met her.

**(Bleh. Couldn't come up with a good ending for this chapter. I'm already at, like, 2,700 words. I'm gonna have a lot to proofread and change, since I kinda kept getting distracted and this chapter took me DAYS to write. My parents kept taking me away from typing it. Again. BLEH.**

**Oh, random concept I wanted to throw out that I didn't use in the story. (I HAD TO CUT THE PART OUT CAUSE IT GOT CONFUSING.) I like to think of Sonic as pretty much immortal, more or less, but he can age, but somewhat slowly. I mean, how many times does he die when you're playing his games? He comes right back! Regeneration! I dunno, hard to explain. Long story short, I think this whole video game regeneration thing would prolong his life. Plus he just keeps coming back to life even if he's SUPPOSED to be dead! THANKS, ELISE. Shadow could use the Chaos Emeralds or something to bring him back if he dies from some unprecedented event. I dunno. I'm not making sense. :P So I was going to have Dark/Sonic still be alive, along with Sonic Exe, but…too much work. I'm lazy, what can I say?**

**COOOOOMATOSE. No. It's COMMA-TOSE! For us writers here. :) Sorry, listening to Skillet. LOVE THEM. Random statement.**

**Review what you thought of this chapter and what you think will happen! I don't wanna blow the 3,000 word barrier just yet, so GOODBYE TO YOU ALLS.)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	19. Chapter 19 - Tick Tock

**(Ugh, every time I think I have time to type, I get distracted by something or I'm told to do something else! I'VE HAD ENOUGH.**

**Sonic Boom…was some of the most fun I've ever had! Luckily, on the ride to St. Louis, I had some time to think over the next three chapters or so and (mostly) moved past my writer's block. Oh, and if you looked at my profile, I put some quotes from the English version of a cutscene from Sonic Lost World, the new game coming out. :3**

** Here's a little update you might want to read. DON'T SKIP AHEAD! Okay, good. At the same time of writing this, I am writing my new story, ****_Sonic '06 Bloopers_****, so hopefully this'll explain my absence in posting chapters for this story. I will post the rest of ****_Sonic'06 Bloopers_**** after I finish ****_In the Dark_****. However, I will be writing that beforehand and in between chapters of this, so they may come later than usual. Patience, everyone, it will be posted, but with school starting soon the chapters of both stories may come few and far between. The first chapter of ****_Sonic '06 Bloopers _****has already been posted, and I'm posting this note in both stories as well. Check it out if you like humorous, parody stories!**

** Anyway…**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

******After knowledge of a rescue plan reached Dark's ears, Sally, Amy, and Shadow were sent into the distant future instead of the past. The trio escaped a volcano, were attacked by a fire monster known as Iblis, and were saved and taken in by some new friends from the future; a gray hedgehog named Silver and a purple cat named Blaze. Their new accomplices explained that Dark had released two demigods into the future; Iblis and Mephiles, to capture the three of them. Somehow, all time portals leading out of the future have been closed as well. Trapped in the ruins of the world they once knew, Shadow, Amy, and Sally must find a way out of this timeline and back to the past, so they can prevent Dark from ruining the future and destroying everything in existence.)**

For several hours, we contemplated our next move. Or rather, Shadow did while Amy and I took time to get to know our new friends. Eventually we fell into an awkward silence and I thought up a question that might put us on the right track to escaping the future.

"So, is there something or someone who can control the time portals to open and close them?" I asked.

Silver thought for a moment, and then snapped his fingers in realization. "Yeah! Mephiles is in possession of a gem called a Dark Emerald. It's related to the Chaos Emeralds, but controls time."

"So if we find this Mephiles guy and take the Dark Emerald, we should be able to open the portals, right?" I thought aloud.

"That sounds about right," Blaze confirmed. "But it'll be extremely dangerous. You have no idea what he's capable of."

"Please," I said. "He can't be worse than Dark if he's working for him, can he?"

"You'll just have to see for yourself," Silver said, standing. "C'mon, we can lead you to his home."

The rest of us stood and followed Silver. Silver and Blaze led us outside of the building that the safe house was hidden in.

**(Ironically, I'm listening to Dreams of an Absolution, Silver's theme song. X3 Well, now it's Area – Sweet Mountain…still a Sonic song.)**

As we walked through the city, we were attacked by strange worm-like things with claws for mouths seeming to be made of molten rock and fire. They popped out of the ground and tried shooting fireballs at us, and fire-breathing oversized lizard-dog creatures and fire birds ambushed us. Silver and Blaze, however, took care of these fire creatures with ease.

"Iblis's creations," Silver briefly explained after the first attack. I nodded in understanding.

We continued through the vast city for several hours. My feet were killing me, and the soles of my shoes were melting and getting thin from walking on hot ground.

"We'll be there within another half an hour," Silver announced. I sighed with relief.

Little did we realize that one of our number had strayed away…

* * *

** (So the point of view in this chapter is going to jump around a little bit…Sorry about that, nothing I could think of to fix it.)**

Amy looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, wandering around like a lost puppy.

"I thought I saw some place familiar, but now I think I'm lost…" she murmured to herself. She rounded a corner and saw, standing in the middle of the street, was Shadow, but he was alone.

"Shadow!" Amy cried, and ran to him. "Do you know where the others a—" She stopped, realizing several things at once. One, this wasn't Shadow. The hedgehog looked exactly like her friend, but his fur seemed more…muted. He looked at her with acid green eyes, and she noticed that he had no mouth. The final thing she realized with a shock was that something hot was breathing down her neck. She went rigid with fear, and slowly turned her head to see who was behind her.

A fiery monster, about twice the size of Amy herself, stood behind her, seeming to be coming out of the ground. It seemed to be made out of molten rock, and had three eyes. Its arms were so long they almost dragged on the ground, and one was reaching out towards her.

"Take her to Dark," the strange hedgehog said in a deep voice, sounding slightly like Shadow. Amy had just enough time to scream before the fire creature grabbed onto her wrist, burning her skin.

From several blocks away, Silver, Blaze, the real Shadow, and I heard the scream. It was only then did I realize Amy wasn't with us, and all four of us bolted toward the sound, Shadow and Blaze leading. We soon reached the street and saw that Amy was being held by the fire creature not unlike the ones that attacked us, and the hedgehog that looked remarkably like Shadow standing nearby. We were just in time to see the fire being disappear in a sudden flame – and Amy disappearing with him.

"That was Iblis…" Blaze murmured upon deaf ears.

"AMY!" I cried, and tried to charge at the spot where Amy had been, but Silver grabbed my arms and held me back.

"Stop, Sally!" Silver cried. "It's no use, she's gone." **(I'm going to be using that meme a lot…)**

"Who are you, imposture?" Shadow snapped at the hedgehog.

"I am Mephiles the Dark," said the stranger. "And if you want your friend back, you will hand over your Chaos Emeralds to me, or I will personally kill her. You have one week. You know where to find me." On that note, he took out a deep purple Chaos Emerald and disappeared in an orb of indigo light.

Silver released me, and I fell to my knees, stunned beyond belief. Tails is dead, Sonic is corrupted, and Amy is all I have left, but now even that has been taken from me. I may have Shadow, I barely know Silver and Blaze but they seem to be on my side, but it felt like I was alone in my fight against Dark.

Silver looked up at the dark sky. "It's getting late. We should head back."

Numbly, I got to my feet and followed the three of them back to base. Our numbers keep falling, and I'm fighting a losing battle. Who would be next, and who would be the last one standing?

* * *

Hours later, I lay awake on a mattress with nothing but a sheet covering me. I couldn't get any of my lost friends off my mind. Silver was keeping watch outside the building, and the only sound in the room was Blaze's steady breathing and the soft drip of water from a sink in another room, keeping time for me. Shadow was lying on the same mattress I was, since it was the only makeshift bed Silver and Blaze happened to have. However, I could tell he wasn't sleeping. Upon glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, I saw him lying on his back with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He looked an awful lot like Sonic when he was thinking, though Shadow would kill me if I voiced that thought. After a few hours of no rest, I felt the mattress move as Shadow got up. I opened one eye to watch him leave the room. Once I was sure he was a safe distance away, I quietly followed him up the staircase. He went outside, where Silver was, leaving the front door slightly ajar. I leaned against the wall and listened.

"Can't sleep?" I heard Silver say.

"Yeah," Shadow replied. "There's a lot on my mind."

"Like what?" Silver asked.

He didn't answer directly. He hesitated before asking, "Who did you say he was a shadow of?"

"Who?"

"Mephiles."

Silver was the one who hesitated this time. "My father. Why?"

"I just thought it was weird how he looked exactly like me. What was your father's name?"

This time, it took a good half a minute for Silver to answer. "…Shadow the Hedgehog."

There was a long silence, and I realized what they were saying.

Shadow broke the silence. "Would that be even possible…?"

"Of course it is," Silver replied. "I kind of suspected it when I first heard your name. Actually, I thought you were him…from this timeline, I mean. He left when I was very young to find the cause of all this wreckage. I haven't seen him in years."

Shadow, once again, hesitated. "Who was your mother?"

"I don't know. She died when I was still a child. You never – I was never told her name, and I don't remember what she looked like."

I knew I had heard too much. I dashed downstairs and back to the bed. Immediately, new thoughts filled my mind, and one stood out above all else.

Shadow is Silver's future father.

* * *

_Amy appeared with Iblis in a dark room lit by torches. The room had a bridge that, upon a closer look, seemed to be made out of bones. The bone bridge had several different paths that branched out in different directions, leading to wrought iron doors along the walls. The bridge rose only a few inches above a deep pool of crimson blood, and the iron railing along the sides had Mobian heads speared on its spikes. The blood pool bubbled in certain areas, and sometimes a decomposing hand would reach up onto the path and sink back down. Skulls lined the paths with candles burning inside them. Amy shuddered and felt a cold shiver run down her spine. _

_ The main bridge led to an alter with two thrones on top of it; one made out of flesh and meet, the other made out of skulls. Sitting in these thrones were Dark and Sonic Exe._

_ "Fresh meet," Sonic Exe hissed when he saw Amy. "Is she the next to be executed?" He raised his hand, prepared to snap his fingers. Amy gulped._

_ "Patience, my friend," Dark replied in a lazy voice. "All in good time." He addressed the demigod, Iblis. "You've done well…so far. Where are the others?"_

_ Iblis spoke in a voice that sounded like stones being grated together. "We managed to capture one, and will manage to get the Chaos Emeralds you requested, Master. But to do that we had to leave the rest."_

_ "Good," Dark replied, a grin spreading across his face. "Store this one in Cell 2BX." He shifted his gaze to Amy, and another shiver ran through her body. "We'll deal with you later."_

_ Iblis clasped onto her already burned wrist and started to drag her down one of the paths._

_ "You can't succeed!" Amy shouted, struggling. "Sonic, I know you're in there, don't let him do this to us! We're your friends, come back and help us!" Then the heavy iron door slammed shut behind her._

_ Dark glared after her, then growled and put his head in his hand._

_ "Are you alright, fellow ruler?" Sonic Exe asked._

_ Dark didn't open his eyes. "He's getting stronger," he replied. "But he won't be strong enough without help. I suggest we get rid of his lifeline as soon as possible."_

_ "But we can't," Sonic Exe pointed out. "They have two of our Emeralds; they're the only ones preventing us from rising to full power."_

_ Dark opened his eyes, which were glowing fiercely. "Then we'll have to multitask. We'll destroy them and take what's ours…when the time comes."_

** (FINALLY. I'm done with this chapter! But I still have to proofread… *shot***

** The whole "Shadow being Silver's father" thing is Skye's idea. She believes that to be true, and she pointed out some strong evidence that supports it. So I don't know what to think.**

** That's all for now. Hope you all enjoyed, and sorry for the late post!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	20. Chapter 20 - Faith is Fading

**(I don't have anything to say right now, really…oh, I DO have something.**

** Sorry I haven't been posting lately, I think I mentioned that school's starting soon so I'm busy with that, I've been camping a lot lately, and I've been getting into PewDiePie on YouTube lately, soooo….yeah. That's all, I guess.**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark_****…**

** An interference with Shadow's time-altering Chaos Control has sent Sally, Amy, and Shadow to the very distant future, where they meet up with two strange allies; Blaze the Cat and Silver the Hedgehog. The two newcomers decide to help the trio journey to the villain Mephiles's home to try and reopen closed time portals with the Dark Emerald, which is related to the Chaos Emeralds. However, little did they realize that Amy had wandered away from the group. She fell into a trap set by Mephiles, who impersonates and is the literal shadow of Shadow. The remaining four tried to rescue her, but were too late, and watched as she disappeared with Mephiles and Iblis, the fire monster. With no other options, the group, now one short, headed back to Silver's and Blaze's base to rest. That night, Sally overhears a conversation between the two remaining hedgehogs and discovers that Silver is Shadow's future son, the mother left unknown. What will their next move be? Will Shadow and Sally decide to continue their quest to return to their timeline, or go after Amy? Find out in this exciting chapter of ****_In the Dark!_****)**

The next morning, I lay awake, staring at the ceiling. Every time I tried to fall asleep, I was awoken by nightmares; memories from Exe, images of Amy's scared face when she had been taken, and the last moments before Sonic had been overcome by that demon, Dark. How could our lives have gone from so peaceful (other than fights with Eggman) to something out of a horror movie? All the things we've seen, all that we've been through, no longer seemed real when I sat in the quiet room. No one would know that the world, life as we know it, and time itself was falling apart around us.

After a few hours of lying quietly with my eyes closed and pretending to sleep, I was snapped out of my thoughts by Blaze, who shook me a little and spoke quietly.

"Get up," she said. "Shadow and Silver think they know where the Dark Emerald is. We want to head out sooner than later to get it."

I nodded a little, sat up, and stretched.

I could hear Shadow and Silver talking in another room. Does Blaze know about their relation? The fact that we happened to come across Shadow's future son right when we came here was kind of disturbing. It was a little strange that Shadow, of all people, will have a son. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would fall in love and do…_that._ But isn't it a little ironic that we just happened to meet Silver? But I guess it doesn't matter. Silver's on our side. The fact that he's Shadow's son shouldn't slow us down.

Before long, Blaze and I met Shadow and Silver in the stairwell.

"So here's the plan," Shadow began. "I can sense Chaos energies coming from somewhere in the city, and they're rather potent. We'll see what the situation looks like once we're there and come up with a further plan."

Blaze and I nodded in agreement. We made our way up the stairs, out of the building, and started through the city.

"Everyone, stay close," I said, remembering what had happened to Amy. "We can't afford to lose another one of our number."

After that statement, we walked in silence for several blocks. I wondered if and when Shadow and Silver would tell us. I decided to just bring it up in private. After all, to get what you want, you just have to press your luck a little. I walked a little faster to catch up with Shadow so I could talk to him.

"I overheard you and Silver talking last night," I said quietly to just him. "I know how you two are related."

Shadow glanced at me. "How did you hear? We were outside."

"I couldn't sleep, and I could tell you were restless. So when you left, I decided to follow you."

"Hmph. Well, it doesn't make any difference. We still have our mission."

"I know, but…do you care about him? Like, as a son?"

He didn't answer and looked away.

I frowned. "If you do, don't let it get in the way or distract you. Like you said –"

"I'm not that kind of person, Sally," Shadow interrupted. "And why are you lecturing me?"

"Hey, I'm the one who dragged you into this mess in the first place," I pointed out firmly. "You're listening to me. But it's like you said, we still have our mission, and eventually we have to leave him. Don't get too attached."

"Just shut up and keep moving."

"Are you gonna tell Blaze?"

"Silver already told her before you woke up."

I nodded, then lowered my voice further. "Do you think we can trust them?"

Shadow's face hardened. "Of course we can trust them," he hissed. "They saved us once. I don't think they'd have done it if they weren't trying to help us out."

"What if they work for Dark?" I persisted. "They were leading us towards Mephiles. What if they were planning to just leave us with him and let us get captured? They didn't even try to stop Iblis from taking Amy. What if they just want to use us to open the portals?"

Again, he didn't answer.

"I know Silver's your son and all, but we can't ignore the possibility. Be careful."

He suddenly stopped walking and turned on me. "I said shut up!" he snapped.

His voice echoed, sending a flock of crows flying, letting out loud caws.

I hesitated before nodding and fell back as he continued walking. Silver glanced back at me. I had a feeling he knew that I knew.

A few minutes after that, Shadow stopped near an unsteady-looking skyscraper that looked like it was almost completely made up of windows.

"Here it is," he said. "The energies are coming from the top floor."

"This isn't going to be like last time, is it?" I asked him.

"What happened last time?" Silver asked.

Shadow looked at him. "We had to get a second Chaos Emerald from a skyscraper. We were boxed in by Dark's cronies and had to make a last-minute escape. That's how we got here."

"Oh," was all Silver said in response.

"So how do we get up there?" Blaze persisted, putting us back on topic.

"I suggest we go inside and take out any Iblis creatures that may be there," Silver said. "That way we won't have to deal with them when we get the Dark Emerald, like we would if we broke in."

"That's not a bad idea, Silver," Blaze said, sounding impressed.

Silver smiled.

"Well then, let's go." Shadow skated towards the building, and we followed.

The inside lobby only had two fire birds flying near a stairwell. Shadow easily took them out with two well-aimed homing attacks, and we started up the stairs. As we climbed, I started to get hot. I was just thinking that it was from exertion from the trek up the many flights of steps when Blaze spoke up.

"It's Iblis!" she cried, looking out a window.

Sure enough, flames surrounded the building, towering up to ten stories high. Out of the fire rose a monster, similar to the one that had captured Amy, but much larger and ganglier. He swung his giant, stony tail and – _BAM! – _it smashed into the building, several floors below us and sending glass raining down to the ground. The building gave an ominous shutter and creak, and I could swear it tipped a little.

"RUN!" I cried, and we dashed up the stairs, the building seeming to fall a little with every step.

The building gave another huge lurch, and I figured Iblis had smashed his tail into it again. But we were only halfway up the building. Suddenly, Shadow grabbed my hand and took off flying with his rocket shoes. Noticing what he was up to, Silver did the same with Blaze using his psychokinetic powers. Once we were high enough, we exited onto the landing. The building shook again, but more violently.

"He's getting closer!" Blaze cried after Shadow and Silver set us down. Another violent shake made the ceiling start to crumble. Shadow glanced out a window.

"We can make it to the rooftops over there," he said over the creaking and rumbling. He turned toward the window, and threw a Chaos Spear that shattered the glass. Another hit to the building sent long and large cracks across the ceiling. I let out a small scream as some of it started to fall and cringed away, but it never hit. When I looked, I saw that Silver was holding the large chunks of concrete above our heads and preventing it from falling on us. I could see the strain on his face.

"GO!" he cried.

"What about you?!" I shouted.

"I'll be fine, just go!"

I hesitated, but Blaze nodded and bounded off, followed by Shadow, and eventually me.

Once we were out of the immediate danger, Silver walked backwards, making sure he still had the rubble in place, then released it, sending it crashing to the floor. Then he ran after us, but tripped on a chunk of the ceiling. I was close enough to him, so I reached out a hand to catch him, but…_my hand went right through his arm._

"Oh, for Chaos's sake…" Shadow hissed, and grabbed Silver by his gloved hand and pulled him to safety. Together, we leaped to the roof of the nearest building just as a final whack from Iblis sent the building tumbling to the ground in a heap of I beams, cement, and glass. Iblis then melted into the flames below.

I sat down on the roof, panting from our close shave.

"Is everyone…okay?" I asked breathlessly.

"Yeah," Blaze said.

"No…" Silver contradicted weakly. He was staring at his hands in disbelief, and I noticed for the first time that he looked slightly transparent and was flickering. We all looked at him.

"The time stream is being altered!" Blaze suddenly exclaimed.

"What?" I asked. "What do you mean, it's being altered?" I looked from Blaze to Silver, the latter too stunned to answer and still staring at his hands. Since Silver was too scared in spite of himself to respond, Blaze answered my question.

"It means exactly as it sounds. Dark and Sonic Exe are changing the time stream so drastically that it's preventing Shadow from meeting Silver's mother. Silver is starting to slowly vanish as it becomes more and more likely that Shadow and whoever Silver's mom is will ever meet. Thus, we need to get you two back as soon as possible to fix whatever is happening in the present, or Silver will be erased from existence and die."

**(Couldn't word it better myself, Skye, thanks! ^^)**

We stood in silence for a few moments, to shocked to say or do anything as the enormity of the situation sunk in. Shadow was looking down; my hand was clamped over my mouth. Shadow was the first to regain his composure.

"Well, we aren't going to solve this problem by sitting around sulking. I can still sense the energies; they're on the move. If we go now, we can catch up to Mephiles, assuming that's who has the Dark Emerald, and take it from him."

I dropped my hand from my mouth and nodded. Blaze took Silver by his hand and helped him up. He had gotten over the shock from his fading and now was looking miserable and sad.

"C'mon, Silver," Blaze coaxed. "We have to help them. The sooner we do, the sooner you'll be back to normal."

Silver looked at her and nodded. I got the feeling he held her in the highest respect.

The four of us climbed down the fire escape into the streets below, and after a detour around the flames still blazing in the streets, were on our way after the Dark Emerald to confront Mephiles.

While we walked, I made a promise to myself. We've already lost so many people, and more were probably dying back on our timeline with every minute we spend here. Amy is as good as dead in Dark's hands. I will not allow another person to die, whether I know if I can trust them or not. I decided to put most of my trust in Silver and Blaze, since there is now a life on the line. But it would only be a matter of time before I find out the truth, and who of our group I can trust.

**(I forgot to credit her in the last chapter, but the plot of this chapter and the last one were both thanks to my co-author, Skye. She is the best Writer's Block destroyer EVER. THANK YOU!**

** Wow. This story is almost over. I estimate….5-6 chapters left. If that. At least I have another story I'm prepared to write after this one. I hope this chapter doesn't seem as rushed as the last one, I tried to take my time. It took me all day to write. I hope you all really enjoy it!**

** Th-th-th-th-th-that's all folks!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	21. Chapter 21 - Confronting the Enemy

**(Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

******Sally, Shadow, Silver, and Blaze have set out in search of the Dark Emerald, a one-of-a-kind gem that can control time to reopen the time vortexes. They were drawn into a building on the verge of collapse by strange energies caused by the Emerald. However, upon their arrival, the fire being Iblis appeared and began attacking the building. Short on time, the four friends searched for an escape and barely made it out. Once they were safe, they realized that Silver physically seemed to be fading. Blaze explained that Dark was destroying the past rather quickly and causing it to become unlikely that Shadow and whoever Silver's mom is will ever meet; thus, Shadow's son is beginning to get erased from existence. Now, it's up to Sally and Shadow, with the help of their futuristic allies, to retrieve the Dark Emerald and return to their own time to set things right, before the only son of Shadow dies and the future becomes even more ruined than it already is.)**

It felt like we were walking for hours. I kept glancing at Silver, while Blaze did so even more frequently than I did. He was looking slightly more determined to help us, despite the fact that he would flicker a couple times every few seconds. I wondered what it felt like to slowly fade from time, but I suppose I don't want to find out. After quite a while, I looked at Shadow, who was leading us at the moment.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" I asked.

He didn't answer. Instead, he froze in place for a moment, looked down the street, and took off around the corner towards whatever he was looking at.

"Wait!" I cried, and ran after him, already far behind. Silver and Blaze followed.

I watched Shadow as he skated ahead. A few meters ahead of him was a figure that looked exactly like him, only his colors were faded. The distance between the stranger and Shadow was quickly narrowing.

"Mephiles!" Shadow cried, and then shot a Chaos Spear at him. The Spear hit the figure in the back and made him stumble and fall, and immediately Shadow was on top of him, pinning the struggling hedgehog down.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Mephiles cried. "Do you know who you're dealing with?"

"Give up, Mephiles," Silver said as he landed beside me. "It's over for you."

Mephiles turned his head and looked at him. "Looking a little pale, are we?" he taunted.

"Shut up!" Silver cried. He lunged at Mephiles, and on instinct I grabbed him and held him back. However, he flickered and fell right through my arms and fell to his knees at the sudden lack of support. Acting unphased, he got to his feet again, but stayed put this time. But his angry glare never left Mephiles's face.

Mephiles started laughing. "You really think that this little rag-tag team can stop me? A fading naïve kid, my big-egoed origin, a flame princess, and a little girl with no weapons or special skills whatsoever. We took your little hammer girl, yet you still decide to take me on. Pathetic."

I clenched my teeth and fists in anger. "What did you call –"

I was interrupted by Shadow. "I believe that you're the one that's being pinned down."

"Pheh." Suddenly, there was a wave of purple light, and I turned away. Something heavy hit me, – hard, – and knocked me off my feet and back into a building. I heard four screams, including my own, and maniacal laughter. When I looked back once the light had faded, Shadow was lying on top of me, Blaze had flown back halfway down the block, but Silver still stood his ground, shielding his face with his arm. Once he had recovered, Silver moved his arm from his face and glared at Mephiles.

"You're heavy!" I cried, pushing Shadow off of me.

Mephiles had changed. He looked even less like Shadow, and now looked like he was made of crystal. His nose had disappeared, and his eyes were red with acid green pupils. His quills were extra spiky. His feet were nothing but purple smoke, and he was hovering a few inches off the ground. In his hand was the very thing we were searching for; the Dark Emerald. He was staring down at Silver.

"I will _not _let you hurt my friends!" Silver cried, and prepared to attack. In that moment, I immediately knew I had been wrong, and that I could trust him. However, Shadow had lost his temper. With a shout of anger, he lunged at Mephiles. When he was close, he drew his hand back and cried, "Chaos Spear!" But before he could throw it, Mephiles stopped him.

"Chaos Control," he said, and Shadow froze. At that moment, Mephiles threw a punch at his gut and sent him flying backwards. Shadow didn't move.

"Shadow!" I cried. I grabbed a large chunk of concrete from the cracked sidewalk and chucked it as hard as I could at Mephiles. It hit him in the side of his head, but had little effect.. He growled and turned to look at me. Only then did Shadow leap to his feet and throw the Spear that was still in his hands at Mephiles. Distracted, he shifted his glare back to Shadow, giving Silver time to attack. Using his telekinesis, he picked up several steel and explosive boxes stacked on the corner and flung them at Mephiles. The first steel box hit him and knocked him to the ground, the other steel and explosive boxes breaking on top of him. Mephiles groaned and sat up, beams of metal and wood falling aside. He fixed his glare on Silver, who glared back, ready to attack.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Mephiles shouted. "Sink into darkness!" Another wave of purple light, though dimmer, shot from his body and across the square, making us skid back a couple of feet. The ground where we stood turned into a strange, waving indigo liquid, though it felt like we were standing on soft ground. From the liquid around us, strange shadow-like creatures, not unlike the ones that roam the streets back home, rose from the ground, letting out strange, high pitched and creepy laughter. Was this where the shadow minions came from in our timeline…?

Silver immediately went on the attack, capturing the shadows in his telekinesis as they lunged at him and flung them at Mephiles, who had gotten out of the rubble. Other shadow monsters latched onto me, Shadow, and Blaze, pinning us to the ground. However, any shadows that got close enough to Silver either latched on but soon slipped through or just went straight through him. As he continuously pummeled Mephiles, I noticed the deep purple Emerald laying on the ground, just a few yards away. If only I could just get to it…

I started to army-crawl towards it. The weight of the shadows pushing me down made it hard to move in the soft shifting ground. Not only that, but more were piling on me, and one was trapped underneath me, making it very uncomfortable. It took an enormous effort to move an inch forward. The going was slow, but when I thought I was close enough, I reached out a hand to grab it, but I wasn't quite close enough. My fingertips were grazing the edge. I tried moving forward even a little bit, but I was just too exhausted.

_Just a little more,_ I told myself. _Just a little more…_

Finally, a shard from one of the boxes Silver had thrown knocked the Dark Emerald toward me, and I grabbed it, holding it tightly to my chest. At the same time, Shadow had taken out one of his two Chaos Emeralds. He had more shadows on him than I did. Caught in a dog-pile, I heard his muffled shout.

"Chaos Control!" There was a flash of red light, quickly spreading from Shadow all the way across the block, sending the shadows flying off of us and making them disappear once they hit the shade casted by the buildings. The ground also returned to normal, and Shadow glowed red with energy. But the blast had taken me off-guard and made the Emerald fly out of my hands and all the way down the street.

"No!" I cried, and tried to run after it, but the ground reverted back to the dark, thick liquid and even more shadow creatures flew out of the ground where I was standing and attacked us, several of them pinning me against a wall.

"For every shadow that falls, ten more take its place," Mephiles said as he used his Chaos Attacks to ward of each of Silver's blows. "You cannot break free from the –" He was cut off. Silver had frozen him in his telekinesis while he had been talking.

"You have one weakness," Silver said angrily. "You have trouble fighting more than one opponent while defending objects. You get distracted easily, and that's my chance to attack."

"You're not…as dull as you…look, hedgehog," Mephiles retorted, the psycokinesis making it difficult for him to talk.

Silver let out a shout and threw Mephiles at a building with all his might.

"Shadow, now!" he cried.

Shadow nodded. "Chaos Blast!" he shouted, and a large, white energy blast shot from his palms and hit Mephiles in the chest. He sank to the ground and melted into an oily black liquid. As he did, he spoke weakly.

"I am…forever. You…cannot defeat…the darkness…" And then he was gone, sinking into the ground before it changed back to the normal paved street, the shadow creatures fleeing into the shade and disappearing.

Silver sighed with relief and fell to his knees. "Man," he said breathlessly. "That took up all my energy."

Not only that, but he was looking even more transparent than before. I could clearly see the street through his faded body when he flickered. Blaze walked up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"You did well," she said. "I think you were the only one who could fight him anyway, in your condition. His attacks went right through you, but you can attack him with just your mind. That may have saved all of us a ton of trouble and probably our lives."

He looked up at her and smiled weakly.

While they talked, I turned and walked toward the purple Emerald still lying in the street and picked it up. Power surged through my body as I held it, but I turned around and went back to our group.

"Hey, Shadow," I said. "Look what I have."

He turned and looked at me, then down at the Dark Emerald in my hands. "Hm, not bad." He looked back at Silver and Blaze. "Looks like we can go home."

Silver got to his feet, though stumbling a little, and nodded. "Yeah, you should do that."

"Thanks for everything," I said genuinely, then looked down and scratched my ear, slightly embarrassed and blushing lightly. "And uh…sorry for not trusting you in the beginning. I thought you were going to let us get captured."

"Don't worry about that," Blaze replied kindly, a smile playing on her lips. "You must've trusted us more than you let on, because you came back to base with us, didn't you?"

I looked up and smiled, knowing she was right.

"We better get going," Shadow said to me. I handed him the Emerald. He took it in his hand, held it above his head, and shouted, "Chaos Control!"

A ripple went across the sky and a time rift opened up behind us; just a large, swirling, light blue, purple and white vortex.

"Good luck on getting your friends back," Silver told us. "And on, well, everything."

"Thanks," I responded with a small smile. "We'll need it."

"You need to beat Dark," Blaze said, the seriousness in her voice noticeable. "For the sake of the future and the past."

Shadow nodded. "We will."

"I would shake your hand, but well…you know." I noticed Silver was blushing lightly as he said that.

I smiled sympathetically.

"Hang in there," Shadow told him.

Silver looked at him and smiled. "See you in about 200 years…dad."

Was Shadow smiling? Did he actually _smile_? I didn't have time to confirm what I thought I saw, because he jumped through the portal. I gave a small wave and followed. After a long and strenuous journey, we're finally heading back to face the horrors that lie at home, and hopefully to put an end to the darkness that has overcome our world.

**(Has anyone noticed how incredibly USELESS Sally is? Or is that just me?**

** I guess that's all I have for now. Hope you all enjoyed! Please review what you thought, how I can improve, and so on, and I'll (hopefully) see you next time on ****_In the Dark_****!)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	22. Chapter 22 - No Home Left

**(5,000 views! So happy! Thanks guys!**

** Yaaay, I'm starting piano lessons soon! But that means even less time for me to be able to write. BLEH. Suckish.**

** Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

******Shadow, Silver, Blaze, and Sally have taken a final stand against Mephiles. A brutal battle broke out in the streets of the ruined metropolis. Blaze, Sally, and Shadow all found themselves unable to fight, so they left the battle to their only hope; Silver, who because of his fading, was able to attack and avoid attacks without a problem. In the end, Mephiles had been vanquished, leaving the group with the Dark Emerald. With it, after their goodbyes, Shadow and Sally were able to open a portal back home. But what will they find there, with Dark in control?)**

I landed softly on dead grass and looked up. The city was in worse shape than before and possibly even worse than the future city we had been in. As Shadow and I traveled to the former GUN headquarters, I saw that the amount of blood staining the streets and buildings had significantly increased, and gory bodies of anthros and humans lay everywhere; speared on a light post, on awnings of stores, some under cars, and just slumped against the walls. As usual, it gave me the creeps. Were there anyone left in Mobotropolis? Or have they all been murdered by Dark's hands? I started thinking about what Sonic would think, if and when we get him back. Does he know what's going on? Is he aware of what his alter ego is doing? Surely, the guilt would be insufferable. I felt terrible for him, and I wondered where he was now, and what he was doing…

Before long, we reached the area where the GUN base was…or should be. All that stood there now was a pile of cement, glass, and rubble. Hung over the collapsed barbed-wire fence that was leaning against the wreck was a dirty banner, and a message was written in crimson letters:

_"IF YoU'RE ALIVE, nONe HAVE SUrVIVEd."_

A handprint served as the period. I'd worry about the banner later. At the moment, I was in shock that the only true safe place that I knew of had been destroyed. We no longer had a home. I glanced up at Shadow. He looked placid, and walked up to the wreckage. I reached out to him, about to stop him, but decided against it and dropped my hand. He started searching through the rubble, and only then did I realize that there was a surprising lack of Exes and shadows. My ear twitched at a sound, and I saw a faint light coming from a window in a building nearby. I cautiously walked up to the window and jumped up onto a dumpster to see inside.

**(It occurred to me in the middle of the paragraph that you NEVER hear about shipping Shadally. But I looked it up and saw quite a bit for it, especially pictures. So I'm wondering if there's any Shadally fans out there? I don't support it, I support Shadria for Shadow and Sonally for Sally. Sorry guys.)**

Inside a dark, seemingly abandoned room, there was a TV was on. Through bouts of static, I could see a broadcast. It seemed to be going live. The screen showed a very bleak-looking room, with literal pools of blood and paths of some kind of white stone – no, bones. At the foot of an alter was a guillotine, **(It's a beheading thing, had to look it up. It was used in France.) **ready for an execution. Standing on an alter was Dark, with Sonic Exe looking very bored in his throne of skulls behind him. I strained my ears to hear what the TV was saying.

"Welcome minions, lost souls, Exes, and those watching at home!" Dark addressed the audience. "Last week, we saw the execution of Rotor the Walrus, the flabby mechanic and friend of the former Sonic. This week is extra special because today, we will be executing the one who created me, and who I _should _be thanking, but we all know I'm not gonna do that." The crowd roared with laughter, which sounded more like nails against a chalkboard. "Guards, bring out the prisoner, Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik!" The camera panned to a set of wrought iron gates, which flung open. Two zombie Exes dragged a very blood-stained, beat, and chained-up Eggman to the guillotine. The crowd booed. As they secured him to the ominous-looking device, Dark kept talking.

"This man is the reason I'm here. Because of a malfunctioning mind control ray, I am here. Or _was_ it because of him and the ray? Nah. The ray did nothing. Sonic Exe here just thought of it as a good chance to let me go. But I should thank him for the perfect opportunity. And what do we do to people that have influenced me or had any major connection to my goody-two-shoes counterpart?"

"Execute!" the crowd roared.

"Exactly!" Dark cried. "Now, do you want him to live, and be turned into an Exe like some of you, or shall we execute him?"

"Execute!"

The camera panned to Eggman's terrified face.

"You want him gone?"

"Execute!"

"Who are your rulers?"

"The almighty Dark and gory-ous Sonic Exe!"

Dark smirked. "That's right." He lifted his hand, and the blade on the guillotine lifted to the peak of the machine. "As my counterpart says," Dark stated, and then said in a mocking tone, "_do it to it._" He let his hand fall as the crowd laughed and cheered, and the blade dropped down onto Eggman's neck, and his egg-shaped head was chopped clean off. Dark picked it up, and after examining it, held it up to show the crowd, which cheered madly. Blood still dripped from where his neck had been.

All of a sudden, an ugly, grotesque face appeared at the window, letting out a horrible scream that could be heard through the window. I shrieked and fell off the dumpster, cutting myself on the rubble. I clamped a hand over my mouth and tried to regulate my breathing, staring at the face that was still pressed against the window. It was a particularly disgusting Exe, with no eyes, blood dripping from the eye sockets, a decomposing, sunken face, a large split in its head, and its mouth open wide in a scream, revealing missing and black teeth and a forked tongue, which flicked over its stretched lips. Suddenly, it disappeared, and I saw something in the dumpster move. A rotting hand was draped over the side, and the lid was was being bumped. I scuttled backwards, then stumbled to my feet and ran back to the ruined base.

"Shadow, we have to go!" I cried, stumbling on a chunk of concrete. An ear-piercing shriek sounded behind me.

He looked up, something glowing in his hand. His eyes shifted to the area behind me, then his eyes widened, and he suddenly skated toward me. I looked back to see the first Exe that had scared me limping after us, shrieking, and the other Exe was dragging what half of its body it had out of the dumpster after it. In the distance, I could see more Exes coming out of houses that should be abandoned. There were dozens. Possibly hundreds…

**(Walking Deeeaaaad… :3)**

Shadow suddenly grabbed my hand.

"Chaos Control!" He shouted, and we disappeared.

We appeared in a dark, musty room. In the dim light provided by the crimson sky through a rickety wood ceiling, I could see dust covering what few things were in the room; a cart with metal shelves full of cans and jars of assorted objects, a sink, and an old, patched couch.

"Where are we?" I whispered.

"A storage cellar that was behind the base," Shadow replied. "It should provide temporary shelter."

I nodded, then grabbed a flashlight from the bottom shelf, and slapped the side of it to get it to flicker to life, and then set it on the ground so it'd shine on the ground in front of me. Something about the banner that had been on the rubble of the base was bothering me. In the dust on the ground, I wrote out what it had said.

_"IF YoU'RE ALIVE, nONe HAVE SUrVIVE."_

Why were some letters lower case and some uppercase? Could it be a code? I started with writing the capital letters first.

_"IF YURE ALIVE, ON HAVE SUVIVE."_

That meant nothing. I tried unscrambling it in as many different ways as possible before I decided that must not be it. The dust around me was now etched out in many different nonsense words. I was just about to start on the lowercase when Shadow, who had been scoping out the room, walked up to me and set something beside me.

"For protection."

I glanced at it. It was a handgun, fully loaded. I looked up at him.

"I found it in the wreck," he said simply. "As well as this." He then took out a glowing blue Emerald. **(I looked back at previous chapters, and we have a red, white, and blue Emerald. :3 AMERICAAAAAA!)**

I smiled. "That's perfect," I said. "Now we have three."

I caught a hint of a smile on his face.

I went back to my decoding. When I wrote out the lowercase letters, I saw the beginning of something.

_"One r"_

One…One R? It didn't sound familiar. Shadow looked over my shoulder.

"There's a lowercase D at the end," he advised, then went back to looking around.

I added the D at the end.

_"One rd."_

That looked better, and familiar. I changed it a little.

_"One Rd."_

Which changed to…

"_One Road._"

I didn't know a One Road, but I knew a First Road. I wondered if there was something there…

"Shadow, we should check out –"

"First Road?"

"Yeah."

"That's only a few blocks away; we could make it there easy."

"Can you teleport us there? So we don't have to deal with Exes?"

"Of course."

I grabbed my gun and put it in a sack strapped around my ankle, usually used for carrying my handheld computer, Nicole. Shadow grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet, and we disappeared.

When we appeared, we were on the corner of First Road and Decent Avenue. I looked up at the sign. Painted in red on it was a number:

_"55212"_

That must be an address. Shadow and I followed the street down, looking at the addresses. 55206…55208…55210…55212. We walked up the steps to a building. I noticed an engraving on the door:

_"Knock the number."_

I knocked five times, paused, then another five times, paused, two times, paused, once, paused, twice, and then stopped.

A minute passed. I was getting paranoid, constantly looking over my shoulder. Then, I heard someone by the door. A second later, I heard them unlocking it. There were a lot of locks. The door opened, but the person was running away.

"Hey, wait!" I cried, and ran after them, Shadow on my heals. The person ran down hallways, through rooms, and even into the next apartment. We kept following them. Then we reached a hallway that only had one door. When we opened it, it was a supply closet. But it looked like some of the stuff had been moved. Peeking out from under an apron that had fallen off a hanger was a trap door. I kneeled down and moved it aside, revealing the door. I grabbed the iron handle and heaved it open. About ten feet below us was a room, with a large pillow underneath the trap door. I swung my feet over the edge of the opening and dropped down onto the pillow. The landing was soft, and I got to my feet. I heard a _whoomph,_ and Shadow had dropped down into the pillow. Then I looked around the room.

The main room was large and made out of cement, with several adjoining rooms. They were all labeled; a bathroom, nursery, storage, safe, kitchen, supplies, etc. Cots were set up all across the room. Milling around the room were dozens of people. Anthros and humans, women and men, elderly and children. I was amazed. In the bleak times we're going through, these people have found a way past the Exes, past the shadows, and past Dark. They are trying to make it through the storm.

We have found the survivors.

**(This chapter wasn't as long as I'd hoped. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed this; I don't really have anything to say. See you next time.)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


	23. Chapter 23 - Lost and Found

**(Sorry for late posting, I've been REALLY busy lately. I started re-reading Harry Potter, so I've been doing that, and, well, I just keep getting distracted by You Tube and other stuff.**

** This chapter might just reach 3,000 words! (All of them have been under or just under 3k.)**

**Last time on ****_In the Dark…_**

** Finally, Sally and Shadow have arrived back at their own time. But it appears that things have gotten worse in their absence. The only safe place they knew of has been destroyed, but a message was written on the ruins; ****_"IF YoU'RE ALIVE, nONe HAVE SUrVIVEd." _****After a narrow escape from some Exes, Sally discovered that there was a message hidden inside the phrase; ****_"First Road." _**** Shadow and Sally teleported to the very road where they found an address painted on the street sign. It led them to an apartment building and eventually into a secret passage. In an underground facility, a large group of people have found a way to survive. Can these people be trusted? Will Shadow and Sally stay with them? Or will they head out into their dangerous world in search of their own way to survive? Find out in this chapter of ****_In the Dark!)_**

****When we arrived, some of the group members looked up. Then the one closest to us whispered something in the next person's ear, then they whispered it in the next, and so on until it got to a middle-aged human sitting on a cot in the corner of the room, reading what looked like an old newspaper. Next to him was his very pregnant wife, who was reading over his shoulder. When the whispered message reached them, they both looked up at us, then stood and came over to where we were standing. The man bowed low when he saw me.

"Princess Sally," he said. "It's an honor to see you alive."

I blushed slightly. "You don't need to be so formal," I said. "I'm just another person trying to survive out here. I don't think I'd be considered the princess with Dark in control."

"You're still _our _Princess," the woman reassured me. I smiled.

The man looked at Shadow, who was still observing the place.

"You're Shadow the Hedgehog, right?" he said. "I've heard a lot about you on the news."

Shadow simply nodded.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the stranger continued. "I'm John Stigmont, and this is my wife Gina, founder and co-founder of this little…organization. We set up this place as a refuge for people trying to get away from the Darkness outside. In fact, that's what this place is called; The Refuge. We spread the word the same way we did for you…sorta. Sometimes the messages were easier to understand, but not quite so easy that any Exe on the street could read it. Then again, they're not very smart."

"So…were you the ones who demolished the building?" I asked.

John shook his head. "It was like that when we got there. I think the shadow things took it down to find you guys. You're high up on Dark's "Wanted" list. He's killing off anyone close to Sonic. Did you see that today he took out Dr. Eggman?"

Shadow looked at him for the first time. "The faker killed the doctor?"

I looked down, ignoring him. "Yeah, I did. Who else close to him has he murdered?"

"Rotor and Eggman are it so far. I think he's managed to catch Rouge, Amy, Knuckles, and Geoffrey St. John. Most of the others are either here or someplace else. There are other safety camps around the area."

He was right. When I looked around, I saw Bunnie Rabbot, a half-roboticized Freedom Fighter, going into one of the adjoining rooms, and Antoine D'Coolette watching us, polishing a sword with a bloodstained cloth. I wondered how many Exes he'd had to kill with that thing. As I looked around some more, I saw other former Freedom Fighters and people I knew. All seemed to be in relatively good health. I turned back to the man.

"So you brought us here…why?"

"Well, I figured since you two hadn't been captured, you must be trying something against Dark," he explained. "That's kinda what we're all doing. We were gathering the Chaos Emeralds to see if they could help, but…" He lowered his voice. "To be honest, we don't have a real plan, and none of us here can control them."

"Shadow can control them," I said. "Maybe we can do something with them. I'll have to think up a plan. Anyway, how many do you have?"

"We have two Emeralds right now."

"Perfect, we actually have three. Two left."

"And we know the location of one." John smiled. "I think you'll be a big help."

I returned his smile. "I hope we will. When were you planning on setting out to get the sixth?"

"Actually, people are getting ready now," Gina spoke up, "but we weren't planning on going until we had you guys. But we saw you coming."

"How?" Shadow asked abruptly.

Gina nodded toward a room marked Surveillance. "We hacked into the city's main security camera system. There were some surviving cameras at that base."

I raised my eyebrows. "Impressive."

John nodded. "We're one of the more advanced safe houses."

"Why don't you take a look around while we finalize a few details?" Gina suggested.

I smiled and nodded. I walked past them, but at the last moment turned and added, "Oh, by the way, thank you very much."

They both smiled.

"No problem," John said.

* * *

I spent the next hour or so taking a tour of the The Refuge led by a young Freedom Fighter no older than twelve. It took up the entire basement to the apartment building and the adjoining one. The Rest Area (as I was told the room we had dropped into was called) and the Cafeteria were the two largest rooms. There was also a living room/auditorium, called the Rec Room, where the Stigmonts held meetings, made announcements, and where the Refugees watched the news Dark broadcasted from a projector. Apart from those rooms, there were two ten-stall bathrooms, one for girls and one for boys, a kids' area, extra supplies, and a passage leading outside. There were also several locked rooms the twelve-year-old tour guide didn't tell me about. I tried not to give a second thought about them; we all have our secrets, surely these Refugees do too. The kid was just showing me how they got water from a purified fountain in the city square when a three-tone bell sounded. Following the kid's instructions, we met in the Rec Room. All the Freedom Fighters and Refugees were sitting on mismatched couches and chairs facing the front, which had a podium. I took a spot next to Shadow, who barely acknowledged that I was there. Bunnie sat on my other side, but we only had time to wave and smile at each other before the meeting began.

"Let's cut to the chase," John began, standing at the podium. "Some of you may have noticed the newcomers. Princess Sally, Shadow, could you please stand?"

We did as he said. The Refugees clapped, and a few even whistled. I smiled and we both sat back down, and all the while Shadow remained expressionless. What in the heck does he think about that keeps him so…stony?

"These two are here to help us defeat Dark, or we're helping them," John continued once the applause died down. "They possess three Chaos Emeralds, and we have two. Today, our mission is going to the Havok-Foxx building to retrieve the sixth. Who would like to be assigned to this mission?"

Several Refugees raised their hands, including Antoine and Bunnie. Sheepishly, I raised my hand, not quite sure if I was supposed to. John counted the people with their hands raised. I looked around and noticed that two-thirds of the group was volunteering, even a few teens and kids.

"Alright, how about Ice, Michael, Bunnie, Haley, Antoine, and of course Sally, Shadow, and myself," John said, jotting something down on a pad of paper. "You seven, take ten minutes to get what you need, then meet me in the Rest Area. Meeting dismissed."

The Refugees dispersed. Immediately, I stood and Bunnie and I hugged, squealing. Shadow gave us a look of disgust before walking off. I distinctly heard him mutter, "Girls."

"Where've you been, Sally-girl?" Bunnie asked in her country drawl once we pulled away.

"Oh, I've been around," I said, smiling. "Y'know, traveling against my will."

She gave me a puzzled expression.

"I'll explain in a minute," I said in response to her reaction.

"Ah've been wonderin' if you were even still around," Bunnie said. "Things have been so chaotic lately."

"I can imagine," I sighed.

"So tell me what you've been doin'!" she quipped.

So I launched into the story of how I was involved in the Sonic crisis, including the interference that caused us to go to the future. I didn't spare any details, and the story spanned the whole ten minutes. Before I knew it, John stuck his head in the room to call us in.

We spent five minutes double checking supplies and going over a sketchy plan. Soon, we were on the road to the Havok-Foxx building, which was a huge office building on the south side of the city. While we walked, I continued talking animatedly with Bunnie and started talking to Antoine. We had already walked a few miles when I noticed the surprising lack of Exes. I decided to bring it up with John, who was leading.

"Most of them are called in during the day to witness what Dark calls 'executions,'" John explained. "You'd think with that name, the victims would've done a crime to land themselves there, but no. Anyway, they're not really out during the day. It's at night that you have to worry about."

I nodded in understanding.

I estimated that we had been walking for two or three hours already when John led us into an alleyway. We walked along it, and right in front of the opening (which was blocked by dumpsters) was the Havok-Foxx building. About a dozen Exes and shadows guarded the entrances and broken windows, and I could only imagine how many there could be inside, remembering last time. Even now, the security may have heightened because Shadow and I had escaped with the Chaos Emerald then. I frowned. At least this time we have more support.

"Here's what we do," John began. "Bunnie, can you shoot those guys at the entrance and draw the rest of them to the front?"

"Can do, sugah," she said, transforming her robotic arm into a cannon.

"Ice, you freeze them," John continued.

"Got it!" replied a male, pale blue hedgehog who's quills looked like shards of, well, ice.

"Once they're frozen, Antoine, you can take them out."

"Wi! I can be counted on!" Antoine saluted.

"Do you think we can draw some of the guards out on the inside out into the open?" I put in.

"I could go around the perimeter of the building and distract them to get most of them out if Plan A goes wrong," Shadow said, speaking for the first time since we set out.

"That'd be perfect," John smiled. "Once all that's done, we'll storm the building and take out the remaining ones. Got it?"

"Got it!" We all chimed.

"Alright then, Bunnie, on three," John said to her. "One…two…"

"Three," Bunnie finished, stood up, and fired several rounds at the guards, the sound of the cannon reverberating around the small area.

"If that doesn't draw them out, I don't know what will," I murmured.

Sure enough, dozens of Exes wandered out from behind the building and through the entrance, where the front doors were hanging off their hinges. Some of them even fell from broken windows and landed with loud thuds on the pavement and didn't get up. By now, there were a couple dozen of them outside.

"Keep shooting, Bun," I said. She nodded and followed my instructions.

"Here," said John, handing me a blaster gun. "You'll need it."

I nodded. "Thanks." I stood up behind the dumpster and began helping Bunnie out, shooting the Exes down. They had found where the gunshots were coming from and were now coming this way, and more were spilling out of the building. They were coming up slowly, but in great numbers. The two of us wouldn't be able to hold them off. The crew noticed our strain and joined the fray. John began shooting beside me, and Ice jumped over the dumpster and began sending jets of ice at the Exes, freezing them. Antoine followed, holding two double-bladed swords and smashed the frozen Exes into a million pieces. Soon the entire group was fighting, and in minutes all the Exes were on the ground, most of them dead.

"C'mon," John said, and hopped out behind the dumpster and charged into the building, followed by the seven of us.

The main floor was empty. It appeared that we had drawn all the Exes out. We had probably killed a good couple hundred of them outside. The elevator was out of order, so we took the stairs. We proceeded in silence, guns and weapons drawn, prepared for an assault. We had probably gone up three or four floors in safety when we heard the groans and moans of the Exes, a staircase above us. Each of us hushed one another as we crept up the steps. John took the lead as we rounded onto the next flight, and were met by a very disturbing sight.

Seven or eight Exes were hanging from nooses, the ropes attached to the staircase above us, right in our path, all alive and revolving slowly. Some of them had missing limbs. When one of them saw us, it snarled and reached out toward us, swiping, trying to get us, but couldn't free itself from the rope around its neck. Its growls alerted the others, and they imitated its behavior, shrieking and snarling like a feral animal. To prevent them from alerting the rest of the Exes in the building, we shot them, one by one, until we reached the next staircase. However, right when we shot the last one, a fire alarm went off, red lights flashing in the stairways.

"Shit!" John cried. "I didn't know there were alarms!"

In a rush, we headed up the next flight of steps. At the top, there was a row of hanging Exes, blocking our way. We all stopped dead.

"Oh mah…" Bunny whispered, her hand to her mouth.

These ones were smaller, and I almost threw up, realizing that they were only children, the youngest looking to be about the size of an eight-year-old. It was hard to tell, though, because they were so unrecognizable. I looked around and noticed that some of the other of our crew looked like they were going to be sick as well. Hesitantly, though, I stepped up and shot them, one by one, in the head, not to get past, but to end their misery, if they were still somewhat…human. But that little thought was doubtful. Without further hesitation, I took the lead and ran up the steps, followed moments later by the rest of the crew.

"There's no point in stealth now!" John cried right behind me.

I could hear doors opening up and down the staircase on the landings, and with every new floor we came to, we had to shoot more Exes, and more shadows.

"What floor is that Emerald on?" I shouted over the commotion after we passed the third landing full of Dark's minions.

"Level 17!" John replied.

We hadn't even made it to the next landing when we heard a piercing scream; a live scream. I stopped and looked back. Haley had been grabbed by an Exe on one of the lower levels. I raised my gun to shoot, but the Exe was too close to her head, I'd risk shooting her. Before I could decide if I should risk it, the Exe sunk its teeth into her neck, and the light drained from her eyes as blood stained her front. I froze in horror. I can't continue. I can't. I'll die. Someone else will die. They'll become one of them. This whole mission will be pointless.

"GO!" John cried, snapping me back to reality. He shoved me forward, causing me to stumble on a step, and we continued.

Level 14…more attackers. Level 15…Michael was cornered at a broken railing and pushed over the side, falling 15 floors. Level 16…I was too numb to do anything but shoot. Level 17…we pushed through a horde of shadows and Exes and made it onto the floor.

The floor was all one big room and looked like it had once been an auditorium or meeting room. The front of the room had a carpeted raised platform, and folding chairs were scattered everywhere, thrown around, some broken, and others still in line. The pink Chaos Emerald was sitting on a pedestal similar to the frozen, dead human we saw at the last building we went to, but this one was a human. But that wasn't what struck me as odd. The remaining Exes and shadows had either been killed, or were lined up against the wall. Standing by the Chaos Emerald, with his back to us, was a navy blue, almost black hedgehog with raised quills, a dark aura around him, and he had his hands behind his back. I stopped dead, the others running into me.

Slowly, the hedgehog turned his head, revealing glowing white eyes with no irises or pupils. Dark grinned.

"I've been expecting you," he said in a low, quiet voice.

My eyes narrowed angrily. "What are you doing here?" I growled, my voice shaking slightly. It didn't sound like my own.

Dark turned to face us. "Why, I'm here to meet you, aren't I? I know why you're here."

"Get out of the way…" I snarled.

He ignored me. "You're here for this little baby, arencha?" he continued, plucking the Emerald out of the dead human's hands. His voice was creepily calm. He examined the Emerald in his hand. "Hm…should I give it her?"

The Exes and shadows screamed in disapproval. I looked at the ones directly behind Dark and realized that all of them were pinned to the wall by machetes or swords, stuck straight through their abdomens. My eyes flicked back to the Emerald in his hand.

"How'd you know we were coming?" I asked, my voice steadying.

"Alarms," he replied simply, gestured to the flashing red lights, which cast an eerie glow on the bloodstained room. "And a little bird told me in advance." He grinned. "I see you're hanging with a new crowd. But weren't there eight of you instead of six? A shame, really." His voice changed to mimic Sonic's perfectly. "Whatever happened to Amy, _Sal?_"

That did it. I screamed and lunged at him, but I'd only gone a few steps when both Bunnie and Shadow seized my arms and held me back. Dark stepped back a few paces to a broken window.

"I see you really want this Emerald," he said. "Think it'll help you return this world, and Sonic, to normal? HA!" He held his arm out the window, holding onto the Emerald with just his fingertips. I ground my teeth in anger. His smile taunted me.

"Come and get it," he smirked, gesturing us closer. "Come to your death."

I screamed again and wrenched myself from my friends' grasp and charged at him. But Shadow was faster. He raced ahead of me in a black and red blur, snatched the Emerald and shoved Dark out the window. I caught the briefest glimpse of a look of surprise and – unless I imagined it – fear in his eyes before he tripped over a shard of glass still in the window frame and fell through. I ran to the ledge and looked down, but I didn't see Dark falling. In fact, the only thing I saw was a brief flash of light. No Dark.

"He escaped!" I cried.

"Maybe, but we got the Emerald, didn't we?" Shadow said coolly. I rounded on him.

"And what if he didn't escape?!" I shouted. The Exes were now disturbed by the commotion, but I didn't care. "That's Sonic, you idiot! You hurt Dark and you're hurting Sonic too! Don't you realize that?!"

Shadow glared at me and took a breath to argue, but was cut off.

"We have more important things to worry about!" John cried, and pointed toward the door. More shadows and Exes were swarming into the room. Worse still, some of them on the walls had pulled the swords and knives from their chests and were advancing on us.

"Everyone over here!" Shadow cried. We ran forward and grabbed onto each other and him. I seized Bunnie's metal hand and, rather reluctantly, onto Shadow's arm. He raised his other arm, holding the Emerald high above him.

"Chaos—"

Someone screamed. Ice had been grabbed by one of the Exes and was pulled away from the group, his hand slipping out of John's.

"NO!" I cried, but it was too late.

"—Control!"

We disappeared, our original eight now down to five.

** (You know what's ironic? Sometimes my own stories make me sick. I'll try to tone down the descriptions of dead people and Exes from here on out.**

** 3,000 words! 3,633 at this point to be exact. I could've split the chapter, but…nah. XD**

** I FINALLY FINISHED THANK GOD AND CHAOS AND IDK ANYMORE.**

** Uh….bye. XD)**

**~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd**


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